Robert Frost and of Isolation

[SMALL]

Possible inspiration for mending wall:

Henry David Thoreau, basically this loner guy, lived by himself, and wrote a book about it (or something like that) called "Walden" and the idea of a "bad neighbour" is when his cows cross over to your property. So good neighbour=no cows on your land = good fence to keep the cows away.

MOO

Another inspiration is the Roman holiday of Terminalia, to celebrate the god Terminus (the god of boundaries) (who knew?). Basically people would come and put food on their walls to honour the God, and then all the people would get together and have a great feast to celebrate boundaries.

Thought this might spark some conversation.

[Kafka's Crow]

I don't like learning things by heart but 'Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening' is in my memory since the ago of 11. I love this poem. I like Mending Walls as well. Try 'After Apple Picking' and 'Birches' for even more ambiguous and deeper meanings. Frost is my favorite American poet along with Ezra Pound. Pound's Canto XLV (With Usura) and Frost's 'Stopping By Woods...' two best things that I am lucky to have come across.

[Kafka's Crow]

Mending Walls is about nature's desire to bring us together and our social/ primitive customs of 'constructing' boundaries. 'F(f)rost' does not like boundaries but goes along with his neighbor in their unnatural act which is an annual ritual. I haven't read the poem in many years but it is one of the more simple Frost poems where he is less ambiguous about his meaning. Do read 'Birches' and 'After Apple Picking'.

[Stephanne]

Frost has a pre-occupation with winter. there is a reference to winter in most, or many of his poetry.
one thing I really like about him is his surface simplicity, one thing which always helps. my favourite would be Stopping, but someone spoke of a christmasy feeling, and i don't think that was an intentional image. it reminds me of christmas too, but that is probably because the picture the title suggests corresponds with ones we see in Christmas cards. the poem really deals with graver things. my personal idea.
there are many Christian symbols in his poetry, aren't there? i mean the recognisable ones( not reading three in every line).somehow i have never got down to figuring out why the others of his time( our favourite obscure poets) never saw life as simply as Frost. but even that has reasons-politics and everything. my teacher told me that Frost had a lot of value judgement and that is one negative quality, but most great poets have a strict moral scheme. what do you think?

[NEDJ293]

I love Robert Frost's Fire and Ice ^_^

[Broderick93]

Hello,

I was very lucky to stumble across this site and this forum. I am hoping that you guys could be a bit of help to me. I am writing a paper on Robert Frost, and need about 7 poems that all relate to the isolation of people. This should be simple, but I am having a rough time of it, even though I have "The Poetry of Robert Frost" edited by Edward Connery Lathem. I was hoping to use "The Road Not Taken" and tie ethics into it. So could someone please reply and give me an opinion on which poems I should use? I have pretty much all of them, so accessibility is not a problem.

Thanks,

Brody

[Wilde woman]

I am writing a paper on Robert Frost, and need about 7 poems that all relate to the isolation of people.

Hi Brody,

Do they all have to be poems by Frost? The ones that immediately jump to mind for me are "Acquainted with the Night" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Both of them have a pretty solitary, even lonely, speaker. I'm not sure about the "Road Not Taken", but you can at least get started with these two.

[Silas Thorne]

I would second 'Acquainted with the Night', isolation is at the very heart of it.

[Broderick93]

Thank you very much Ms. Woman and Mr. Thorne. After reading "Acquainted with the Night", I see your point. It is excellent. Now I am focusing on the isolation people feel from other people, whether the cause is society, untruths, etc., which is why the Mending Wall is an excellent example. I have been looking at "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", and can feel that sense of loneliness, but do you know of a way that I can tie that into separation from people? Thank you once again for assisting me so far.

[Broderick93]

Oh and by the way I wanted to use "The Road Not Taken" because it is my favorite by him, along with "Fire and Ice", which I could not find any way to connect to my topic.

[Wilde woman]

Haha, I've never been called "Ms. Woman" before. Thanks, that made my day.

As for your question, think about where the poem is set and who the speaker is with. Think about the only other human being named in the poem and the relationship (if any) between him and the speaker. Good luck!

[Broderick93]

Haha, I just wrote a last name after Ms., but I am not sure what my profile name's would be, haha. And thank you I see it now.