Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Frost Birches
So was I once myself a swinger of birches. / And so I dream of going back to be," (lines 42-43). Robert Frost's poem "Birches" contrasts the playful fantasy of childhood with the mundane realities of science, the cold heaviness of winter with the light-filled warmth of summer. "Birches" is therefore filled with contrasting imagery and themes. The central motif of the poem, swinging, itself conveys the concept of traversing between opposites, swaying to extremes. For example, the narrator dwells on the iciness of winter and later, evokes summer by mentioning baseball (line 26). The arch of the birch tree contrasts sharply with the sturdiness of its trunk, which enables it to withstand the trials of winter. Comparing a young boy bending the boughs of a birch tree through vivid imagery, metaphor and a lyrical and relaxed tone, the narrator of Robert Frost's poem "Birches" creates a meandering journey between life's contrasts.
The birch itself is a tree of contrasts: the narrator describes its "black branches up a snow-white trunk," (line 56). Bending toward the ground, the birch unnaturally deviates from its task of growing upwards, toward the sky. The contrast between Earth and Heaven is central to Frost's poem. Bowed birch boughs convey sharp distinctions between symbolic realms of Earth and Heaven. "Earth's the right place for love," the narrator states; but the human being will always climb back "toward heaven," (lines 53; 57). Thus, the poet addresses directly the dualistic forces of Earth and Heaven in "Birches."
Structurally, "Birches" contains several distinct and contrasting elements, allowing the narrator to distinguish thematically between the opposing forces of reason and fantasy. The first half of the poem is "matter-of-fact about the ice-storm," (line 22). The ice is tangible, heavy, cold, and hard. Using a parenthetical and hypothetical question to segregate the reason from fantasy portions of the poem, the narrator spends the remainder of the poem describing the youthful playfulness of a young boy. Both the ice and the boy denote impermanence: the boy the impermanence of childhood, signified by his not bending the tree "to stay," and the ice denoting the impermanence of life itself, indicated by winter's deadly chill (line 4).
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. "Birches." 1920 Mountain Interval. Reproduced on Bartleby.com. Retrieved online 25 July 2005 at http://www.bartleby.com/119/11.html
Frost's Sounds -- Shaping The Feeling Of The Poem's Reader Unlike the measured procession of syllables and the soft vowel sounds that characterizes the feelings conveyed in "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening," the poet Robert Frost uses sharp, cracklings consonants to denote the dangerous and active life of the birches of his poem "Birches." The poem about "Birches," particularly in the first lines that set the scene and
Through is work readers were placed at the scene, to feel the emotions and spirit of the author. Birches provides a wonderful, heartfelt trip down memory lane as a boy for Frost, who often appealed to the memories of his readers with his work. He begins with wondering about the bent limbs of a birch tree and brings the reader to the days when swinging from tree branches was their
Frost's piece "Fire and Ice" is also rich with metaphors about the human condition. Frost begins his piece with "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice." Again at first glance, frost appears to be discussing the end of the world. However, his next line "From what I've tasted of desire, I'll hold with those who favor fire." Frost appears to be discussing the end of
Frost and Yeats The poems "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yates and "Birches" by Robert Frost both tell narratives about one generation and how the death of the old is what allows the present generation to thrive. Whereas Yates uses a narrator describing the evolving mental state of a man who knows that he is not long for this earth, Frost uses the degradation of the forests over time to
Nature in Poems by Frost, Marlowe and Thomas Nature is often praised and celebrated in poetry. Three poems by three different authors all illustrate this well: "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, "Birches" by Robert Frost, and Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." While each poet has a different purpose, all three choose in their poems to focus on joy in life rather than despair, and use the beauty of
Robert Frost's famous poem, "Birches," might be described as a poem of redemptive realism, a poem that offers a loving, yet tinged-by-the-tragic view of life as seen through the metaphors of nature. In fact, Robert Frost could be called a kind of subversive pastoralist, for unlike the romantic nature poets who preceded him, such as Wordsworth, he sees nature's wildness, her beauty, and yet her relentless harshness as well. The