In support of this, the speaker then relates "I'd like to get away from earth awhile/and then come back to it and begin over" (lines 48-49, p. ) which indicates that the speaker is tired of his loneliness and the desperation of life and wishes a fresh start. In "Design," the speaker equates design with "a dimpled spider, fat and white" (line 1, p. ) which has managed to capture a white moth in its web. For the moth, such a fate is undoubtedly a desperate situation, for he is trapped in the web and cannot escape. A sense of utter loneliness is also apparent, for the moth is all alone within the spider's web, waiting to be devoured.

In "Directive," the narrator pines for simpler days and symbolizes this desire by comparing it to a "graveyard marble sculpture in the weather" (line 4, p. ). Also, the narrator supports this by adding "And if you're lost enough to...

) which shows that the speaker is extremely lonely, so much so that he wishes to close out the world with a sign that indicates no one is welcomed but himself. His world is also much like "a broken drinking goblet like the Grail" (line 57, p. ), a reference to the Holy Grail, the cup which Jesus drank from at the Last Supper.
In conclusion, these four poems by Robert Frost, although filled with metaphors related to nature, such as in "Birches" and "Design," also contain other metaphors and themes that illustrate the loneliness and desperation often found in life. For Frost the poet, such themes allow him to share his deepest inner feelings about the world and man's place in it while telling the reader that, at times, reality is not what it appears…