The Use of Image, Allegory, and Voice in Robert Frosts Poetry Essay Example for Free

The Use of Image, Allegory, and Voice in Robert Frosts Poetry Essay The poetry of Robert Frost was written in the early 1900s and have become a standard in American Poetry. Frost was a prolific author and poet who had the unique ability to effortlessly combined the rich and varied American landscape with modernized transcendental thinking. His poems continue to inspire poets, students, and casual readers. Many of his poems center around nature, his love for New England landscape, and the human experience. These poems are usually set in the colorful New England landscape at the onset of fall and memorializes the journey of one man forced to decide, choose, ponder, or reflect. He creates his point of view from his own personal experiences. After a close reading of his poems it is clear that Frost often asserted the same theme throughout his work. This theme was that of human choice and utilization of free will. Frost uses voice, imagery and imagery and allegory which develop a theme that life is about making hard choices and committing to those choices.   The central metaphor in the â€Å"Mending Wall† is the wall itself and Frost utilizes this as an allegoary. As the wall decays, the narrator and his neighbor repair, which maintains their relationship. However, the wall is also used by Frost as an symbol. The wall symbolism the metaphoric wall which human build to keep themselves safe and other out. Frost asserts that â€Å"There were it is we do not need the wall† (23) implying that while emotional wall exists, they are not needed. He believes that â€Å"something there is that doesnt love a wall† (1). Narrator cleverly explores that idea that if people were truthful with themselves they would have to confess they do not like the wall which separates one life from another. Perhaps this is the reason for the falling stones and the constant decay of the wall over time. Frost has the unique ability to bring together metaphysical thought and the beautiful New England landscape in rhyming text. There are several minor images within the poem which add to the mood and tone of the poem. The setting of the poem is springtime and can be seen in â€Å"frozen ground swell† (2), â€Å"spring mending time† (11), â€Å"in the sun† (3), and â€Å"spring is the mischief in me† (28). Spring is the time when life begins anew and there is great hope for the future. What matters is that the poem makes clear the fact that sometimes serious questions arise, questions that neighbors must decide. . The concept of being a good neighbor is American ideal and an universal experience. This poem is really a dialogue between Robert Frost and his uncle. His uncle was his hardest critic and pressured Frost to do succeed at school. When Frost attempted college several times and failed, his uncle talked him into running a farm for several years . Frost, while he respected his uncle, wanted him to mind his own business. He wishes that his uncle would be hopeful of the future and not try to dominate his present. Their relationship is reflected in the poem. Similarly, in Nothing Gold Can Stay, he explores another common experience that nothing good lasts forever with images. This is a reflection of his own experiences with loss and death. Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, where his father, of â€Å"irm New Hampshire stock, edited a newspaper. The paper was Democratic and Roberts full name is Robert Lee Frost, two facts which are usually taken to indicate the elder Frosts attitude to then-Republican New England. When Robert was eleven, his father died, and he and his schoolteacher mother crossed country and settled with relatives in Massachusetts. The poem opens with images offering the freshness of spring; but as in a dream, when one reaches for the object it is gone, Natures first green is gold (ln 1). Frost continues, Her hardest hue to hold (ln 2), this first green is of a delicate and transitory quality that is already disappearing even as it is being born. By line four the pattern is set. These desirable things are given, but not to keep. The process goes on as . . . leaf subsides to leaf (ln 5). Every human goes through the loss of innocence and learns the archetype of golden youthfulness and innocence was soon lost before the onslaught of the properties of the tree of knowledge. Frost also utilizes voice in his poetry to talk about the common human experience. This universal experience is exemplified in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Frost observes The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep (ln 13-14). Narrator does not give in, and he makes sure he keeps his promises. The the forest is often a symbol in Frosts poetry. It is symbolic of tempting force which can make an individual off track. This of course is something that everyone in the world has gone through being tempted away from doing what an individual know is right and just . Frost through the utilization of literary devices explores the theme of universal experience. The idea of universal experience is a major reason that Frosts poetry is popular, well loved, and stood the test of time. Frosts personal experience can be traced through all his poetry but most elegantly in The Mending Wall, Nothing Gold Can Stay, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Works Cited DiYanni, Robert. Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Sixth Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004.