The Symbolism of the 'Birches'

     Frost?s poem delves deeper into the being and essence of life with his second set of lines. The first line states, ?Her early leaf?s a flower.? After the budding and sprouting, which is the birth of nature, is growth into a flower. This is the moment where noon turns to evening, where childhood turns into maturity, and where spring turns into summer. At this very moment is the ripe and prime age of things. The young flower stands straight up and basks in the sun, the now mature teenager runs playfully in the light, and the day and sunlight peak before descending ever so quickly into dusk. The second line of the second set states, ?But only so an hour,? which makes clear that yet again time is passing by and that a beginning will inevitably have an end.

Frost affects the tone through word choice because he uses the word “perish” to give emphasis of the world vanishing. Instead of using words like disappear or leave, he uses perish because it gives the poem a stronger meaning. He also uses the word “destruction” to give the poem an intense feeling. By using this word, he makes the poem deeper and stronger than it already is.

Frost uses several techniques in his poem, but perhaps the most significant is his use of the metaphor. First, he describes “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1). The roads represent the different choices that people have to make in life and how there isn’t always one choice to be made. Each path is an important decision which he must make, so he has to choose carefully when examining each path. When he “looked down one as far as (he) could to where it bent in the undergrowth” (4-5), this represents him not being able to predict and see the future. The forest represents the unknown, and he cannot see or predict his unknown future. One may think that his choice

Not only are metaphors utilized throughout the poem, but a literary device known as Imagery is as well. Imagery is alternative as important a device for it allows for the reader to have a clear picture of what the character in the poem is visualizing. Furthermore, it also helps covey the theme the author is aiming to represent to the reader. Imagery is made known in stanza two line three, which states, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the readers the traveler is coming up with a reason for why one path could be more favorable over the other. The reader analyzes this line of imagery to obtain a clearer representation of the traveler’s decision-making process. Another line where the author uses imagery is in stanza two line five, which states, “Had worn them really about the same” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the reader that the paths are “worn” down, which informs the reader that both of his choices have been equally chosen by people before him. These examples help the reader begin to form the theme of self-justification in decision-making. After analyzing the metaphors and the imagery Frost uses in this poem, the reader can conclude so far that the theme the poet is conveying

The poetic techniques were symbolism, imagery, and tone. Symbolism is the most powerfully used technique due to the fact a good number of lines located in this poem is used to signify a certain object or idea related to our life or today’s world. Imagery in the sense that you can visualize the path, the yellow wood, the undergrowth, the divergence; it is all made very vivid. Frost did this throughout; you know trying to stimulate the reader’s mood using one’s senses. In this poem, imagery permits the reader to imagine the scene that this poem takes place in resulting in an enhanced understanding of the theme. The tone Frost’s work presents is an insecure attitude which allows the theme to be brought out due to the fact the theme relates to a dilemma in one’s life. These techniques strongly aid in the revealing of this specific theme.

Frost also uses the trees in this poem to represent a way to get away from the cares and trials of life on Earth. He talks of getting away and coming back to start over as if climbing “towards heaven”. He desires to be free from it all, but then he says that he is afraid that the fates might misunderstand and take him away to never return. This is like most of us today. We want to go to Heaven, but we don’t want to die to get there.

Frost has a compelling way of writing the poem, in the beginnings of the poem there is a lot of metaphors and descriptions of the setting and the saw and the boy. Once the boy is injured

The style of the poem is more of a narrative, it paints a picture in my head of what is happening in it. It is not too long, but in the short length it spills a lot about the ideal of it. Frost is the main person speaking to us in this he is telling about his experience and how he's warning us about what could possibly happen.

The meaning that Frost is portraying is not obvious by the title of this poem. This poem is not literal it is meant to be metaphorical. Frost Personifies nature to have life-like traits. The title does not give you an idea of what the poem is about or what the poem means.

In a poem known as Birches, Frost portrays an older man dreaming for a better life. He starts off with having this older man make his connection between realism and fantasy, setting the overall mood for this poem. The connection he makes is that he sees these trees have limbs that are bowed over and how that makes him think that a young boy has been swinging from those limbs. Although, he knows in reality that swinging will not cause that type of bend in a tree, but yet ice-storms do because of the build up from snow and ice on each limb. Frost then goes into detail about the surrounding area to create an image in the reader’s head, to set a scene, and to show how appreciative he is for the beauty of his surroundings. After the scene is set, he goes back into realism stating the real reason for the bending of the trees, which can have the reader make an insinuation that even with all the hardships faced in life, they have yet to give up, that they are still standing strong. Frost then has the old man shift back into fantasy where the old man states that he’d rather the trees have been bent from a little boys swinging amongst them. For he once was a swinger of trees and when the hardships of life become too much for he that he wishes to return to such. Frost also incorporate the use of religion in this particular poem, by having the old man state that he want to get away from earth for a while and then return to begin all over.

As a child, one plays on the playground. The adventures happen amongst the swings. The escape and journey through the air causes the mind to wander and dream. The same way the speaker in Birches by Robert Frost uses his imagination to think of the dangling birches to be caused by a child at play. The feeling of going back and forth gives one the feeling of leaving earth for a little while and soaring above the trees. Feet towards the heavens and the feeling of one’s stomach dropping on the way down, gives a sense of release. As one goes through hard times, they look for that release from the world. The desire to get away is released through swinging to then be pulled back to earth. This same feeling was felt in Birches as a young boy rides

Frost believes that being impartial to the boundaries and potential of human interaction can allow people in society to come to an agreement. The persona has demonstrated an aspect of the metaphysical, which is human

Furthermore, a second poetic device used in both of these poems was personification. In “Reluctance,” Frost personified the parts of his body to explain how torn he was about losing his love: “…The heart is still aching to seek/ But the feet question ‘Whither?’…” (Frost, 17-18). The personification in this stanza made the persona’s uncertainty and pain apparent and contributed to the establishment of the mood. If the persona himself had bluntly said that he wanted to look for his loved one but didn’t know where to look, the impact would not have been nearly as dramatic. Millay also used personification in her poem, “Time Does Not Bring Relief”. Personification was used to communicate the role time played in her life during her loss: “Time does not bring relief; you all have lied/ Who told me time would ease me of my pain…” (Millay, 1-2). The lack of involvement time had in the speaker’s life during her loss made it apparent how deeply grief-stricken she was. Nevertheless, if this poetic device had not been used to convey the theme, it would have turned out less impressive, if not awkward. Millay used an additional personification in her poem which was used to personify the rain: “…I miss him in the weeping of the rain…” (Millay, 3). The

Frost uses personification to convey how worried the horse is and to describe the environment of that part of the woods. “My little horse must think it queer,” (line #)

The third part of the poem begins with a more personal and philosophical tone. The speaker claims to have been such a youthful swinger of birches, an activity he can go back to only by dreaming. The birch trees, probably both ice-bent and boy-swung, stand for the order and control missing from ordinary experience. The "considerations" he is weary of are conflicting claims that leave him disoriented and stung. The desire to "get away from earth," importantly qualified by "awhile," shows a yearning for the ideal or perhaps for the imaginative isolation of the birch swinger. His "I'd like to