To What Extent Do Topic, Use of Language and Poetic (rhetorical) Devices in Robert Frost's Poem Relates to His Life Experience?

 To what extent do topic, use of language and poetic (rhetorical) devices in Robert Frost's poem relates to his life experience?

Abstract

This essay discussed how the topic, use of language and poetic devices are related to the Robert Frost’s life experience. It attempts to explore how his personal background, cultural incidents and his own experience influenced his poems. By analyzing the resources I have found of, the following essay had explained two significant themes which are nature and isolation. Then explore how his use of language from sight of rhyme and patterns had promoted his own style of writing. Lastly, the imagery in the poem was covered since it was the aspect that I had felt most interested. By evaluating limitations and values of the sources I found, the essay was structured as seven parts including the introduction and conclusion. Each part was ended with a short brief conclusion which finally ended with a clear statement in the last part of the essay.

Introduction

The first time I saw Robert Frost’s poem was in a famous Korean’s biography. The author quoted the sentence ‘I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference’ to evaluate the reason of success of that person. Although it was written in Korean, the meaning of sentence was still a fresh shock to me. As I slowly grown up and in touch to more knowledge and information about the English literature, I realized that he is a famous poet in the America, and I have seen many authors from different culture had quoted his poem upon their books. There’s no doubt that Robert Frost has strong cultural influence. His poems had translated into hundreds of different languages and widely read by people and he was even rated as the most popular and influential poet in the twentieth century. For me, his poems attract me not only because of the philosophical message hidden in the lines that reflects our daily life, but also because the use of the language is so simple, clear and colloquial. The flow of the language is very natural and fluent.

  My research question simply explores the connection between the topic, use of language, poetic devices and Robert Frost’s life experience. The topics are drawing upon from the everyday life rather than some special incidents. Nevertheless, the lines are still dense with meaning and rhythms that illustrate Robert Frost’s own way of writing style. Among all the poems written by Robert Frost, ‘The road not taken’ was the most impressive one to me. Therefore I would start analyzing from this poem, and then follow the evidence to paint a bigger picture for his common theme and topic. At the second chapter, I would investigate how his life experiences influenced his thoughts and personality including his writing style. At the end in the last chapter, I would have more discussion about how his idea and poems changed people’s thoughts and how some people apply that to economic and political situations. Since English is the most dominant language in the world, I would like to carry out Robert Frost’s significance to the English culture, and his importance in the history.

The conversation between Human and Nature

  The figures of nature are one of the main themes upon his poems. Frost really loves the nature, he likes to observe it, and use nature as a mirror to reflect himself. However, it is also one of the most misleading elements in his poetry. According to the book “The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost” by John F. Lynen, Robert Frost had mentioned that “I am not a nature poet. There is almost always a person in my poems.” From his statement, we could find out that Robert Frost’s poem is not simply an observation or praise about the greatness of the nature, but a dialogue or interaction between human and nature. In other words, the ‘human’ is an indispensable part of his poem. He used the engagement with nature to imply more depth understanding about it. His real focus is actually on human itself, nature is simply a background or a mirror to implicate the human struggle. Furthermore, the imagery of nature is a metaphor, the nature doesn’t necessary mean itself but more likely to symbolize something else. For example, the imagery of snow and winter which often appears in his poetry indicates the loneliness and despair whereas withered rose represents the death. Frost used particular situation or phenomenon to indicate some philosophical questions or implication about life. Moreover, he is not giving an advice neither teaching a lesson, so his poems are more likely to end with question mark which reveals a different perspective of the phenomenon. That‘s why his message seems very blur and implicit, since he never meant to make a clear statement about anything.