Frost’s Sense

Alden Anderson

English 102

Summer ’05 2:15

Frost’s Sense

Robert Frost has a certain theory. That a sentence has an overall sound and that word may be taken out and the sound analyzed. The theory is Frost’s “Sound of Sense.” Or I like to say, that you may sense the sound of a sentence, with a simple little trick. Put your hand over your mouth and speak the sentence, pay attention to the muffled sound instead of the words being spoken. That would be the sound of sense. This paper is an introduction to this theory along with an analysis of a Frost poem I feel articulates this well.

The poem that I have chosen is taken from his later years, after he first came up with this theory. While Frost was up in a mountain interval in ’23, I believe his imagination started to stray. This may be how the poem, “Brown’s Decent” started. It starts, “BROWN lived at such a lofty farm

That everyone for miles could see

His lantern when he did his chore

In winter after half-past three.”

Meaning; there was a farmer, in an extremely high vantage, with a farm high in view of a town below. This is a simple rhyme poem with and a simpler A-B-C-B style. Yet the roll of the words and the fluidity of the story make it a perfect example for the sound of sense. Try using the hand method to get a sense of the sound here. In the second rhyming section we see two great examples as Brown goes about his chores, “And many must have seen him make.” And, “'Cross lots, 'cross walls, 'cross everything,” The second here is an unusual stammering descriptive sentence that we see imitated later in the poem to add consistency and texture.

The poem goes on to detail Brown’s accident and fall, and as he is sliding down the mountainside we again get a feeling that he is intentionally using certain words to add a sound to the sentence he wants custom. “Sometimes he came with arms outspread/ Like wings, revolving in the scene.” There is a section of four rhyme sets describing the fall. These are all blended together to flow better and increase tension and concentration. Sixteen lines in total, I believe this is the most entertaining part of the poem. Towards the end of Brown’s slide is where we get the stammering descriptive rant again, “He reeled, he lurched, he bobbed, he checked.” These are fun ones to sound out as a sentence because of the varying tones of the words. Brown then slides all the way to the bottom and is stopped by a river road, a soft landing.

The final area of the poem is a thoughtful interpretation of the scene happening on the mountain. Given