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Symbols of Disapproval in Two Poems
While both Thomas Hardy's, "Channel Firing," and Robert Frost's "Desert Places" contain symbols of disapproval, the symbols in the former work are religious nature, while the symbols in the latter take on a more natural quality. First, Hardy mockingly uses death to symbolize the frivolity and uselessness of warfare. He does this primarily by poking fun at the concept of death, instead of treating it as one usually does -- with reverence. For example, Hardy writes that the firing of the guns "shook all our coffins as we lay" (2), resulting in the corpses sitting "upright" (5), thinking it was "Judgment-day" (4). Here, Thomas uses both death and religion to symbolize the frivolity and uselessness of war. His amusing image of corpses sitting up, confused about the date, paired against the firing of the guns allows readers to understand how death is really not an amusing matter, but a serious one. Thus he uses death and religion as symbols of the uselessness of war by mocking them. This is most clearly seen when he writes the following words, attributed to God: "Just before you went below; the world is as it used to be" (12). Through these symbols, Hardy addresses his disapproval of war.
Just as Hardy's poem uses religious images and images of death as symbols of disapproval, Frost's work uses nature to symbolize this feeling. In this case, Frost disapproves, not of war or some greater social problem, but of his own loneliness. Thus, he uses natural images like snow, the woods, and desert places to symbolize his disapproval of that loneliness. For instance, Frost describes how the snow "smother[s]" the animals in the woods (6-7), how the snow can represent his loneliness (9-12), and how the "empty spaces" of his "desert places" scare him (13, 16). Thus, while both Hardy and Frost exhibit disapproval in their works, they use different symbols to get across that disapproval, which is directed at different concepts.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. "Desert Places." Internal.org 1936. 28 November 2008. http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=120
Hardy, Thomas. "Channel Firing." Portable Poetry.com. 1914. 21 November 2008. http://www.portablepoetry.com/poems/thomas_hardy/channel_firing.html
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