Neglect Analysis of Themes in

¶ … Neglect Analysis of Themes in Frost's "In Neglect" Robert Frost's "In Neglect" has been read in different ways by many critics, with some emphasizing the poem's dramatization of boyish mischievousness and others drawing parallels between the poem and Frost's own yearning for "rebellious extravagance" (Poirier 101) and the idea of "love" over "money" (Faggen 253).

This paper will analyze some of the themes that Frost suggests in his poem "In Neglect." Richard Poirier asserts that "In Neglect" is one of Frost's poems that deals directly with the tension between the comforts of home and freedom and the rigor of education and form. The contrast produces the voice in the poem that appears to reject the rigor of standardization for a separate "freedom," in which either friends or lovers may be left to pursue their own ideas (Poirier 101).

However, that Frost should use the word "mischief" in the poem presents the reader with a choice: he may take the word in an ironic or in a literal sense. As Poirier notes, "the word 'mischief' in frost is a very potent one" (101): here, it calls to mind a rather innocent sort of display of independence -- one that happily challenges the status quo. The theme of challenging the status quo -- to one's own neglect -- is explored by Robert Faggen in his reading of the poem as well.

Yet Faggen takes the poem to mean the opposite of what Poirier suggests. In other words, Faggen read the poem in a literal sense, rather than in the tongue-in-cheek sense in which Poirier reads it. For example, Faggen asserts that Frost's "In Neglect" shows that lovers are mistaken in their willfulness and waywardness "when they trust they need not work, will never be forsaken, and can live on love (without money)" (252-3).

Faggen's interpretation of the poem is from the perspective of the establishment or schoolmaster who has sent the poem's narrator into the corner (or into the wilderness) for rejecting the rules and norms (devised for the poet's own good). This reading is obviously at odds with Poirier's, but cannot necessarily be considered wrong.

However, a third reading based on Frost's own assessment of the poem, as given to his poet friend Ezra Pound, may shed some light on another possible interpretation of the themes in "In Neglect." Pound states that there is a personal element to the poem that places it within the context of love and economy.

According to Pound Frost's poem "is to his wife, written when his grandfather and his uncle had disinherited him of a comfortable fortune and left him in poverty because he was a useless poet instead of a money-getter" (Richardson 69). Such a biographical note gives the poem even more dimension. In this light, the theme of chastisement (as read by Faggen) becomes a theme of abandonment -- or rather a theme on the glad acceptance of abandonment.

From this point-of-view, it appears that Poirier's reading of the poem may be closer to Frost's own understanding of the poem as he wrote it. Yet, in conclusion, no one analysis of "In Neglect" can thoroughly suffice as a whole or complete assessment of the poem.