464 Frost, Robert
This poem is about decisions and the passage
of time. A true “coming of age” poem, “The Road
Not Taken” symbolically highlights the freedom one
has to create his own destiny. Given the narrator’s
“sigh,” the reader is unsure if the narrator is pleased
with the road he traveled, or if he has made a mis-
take. While some take the right path, not everyone
makes the appropriate choice. When reminiscing,
there are those who wish their life had taken a dif-
ferent course. By then, however, it is too late. The
choices made early in life have permanent outcomes,
which is why symbolically, readers are encouraged to
“choose wisely.”
Like “The Road Not Taken,” Frost’s “Birches”
presents an older narrator looking back on life. Here,
the focus is on life’s hardships and their effects. The
narrator is looking at the bent branches of a birch
tree. He wishes to believe that they are bent because
young boys have been swinging on them, but knows
that this does not bend the branches “down to
stay.” It is more probable that the branches are bent
because of the ice storms they have weathered.
Frost describes the icy winter morning and
its picturesque beauty, though it is destroying the
shape of the branches. When the storm is over,
the sunlight causes the ice to melt and break. He
describes their shattering as “such heaps of broken
glass to sweep away” (l. 12). This is reminiscent of
the pieces that are left to be picked up after a trag-
edy has occurred: the aftermath. What is important
to note is that, though the branches are altered, they
are not broken.
What the narrator would prefer, however, is that
the boy—left to his own entertaining devices—bent
the branches by swinging on them. Frost describes
how perfectly the boy would swing, learning the
technique so as not to break them, until “not one was
left for him to conquer” (l. 33).
The narrator confesses that he, too, was once a
swinger of birches, “and so I dream of going back
to be” (l. 43). By admitting this, there seems to be
a correlation between the ice storms that affect the
branches and the hardships he has seen. Ultimately,
he would like to return to a simpler time in life
where he had the freedom to play in the woods as
a boy. Even now, he wishes to climb the trunk and
have the branches set him down again. He con-
cludes that there are worse things in life than being
“a swinger of birches” (l. 70).
In each of these poems, Frost discusses the vari-
ous stages of life and the challenges they bring. First,
there is the young boy without a care, one who can
spend his days climbing trunks and swinging from
trees. As he grows, he becomes the young man who
must choose his course in life—knowing that his
decision will alter him forever. Then, looking back,
there is the old man who has endured the trials and
hardships of living—who may or may not regret the
path he has traveled, but would rather be a young
boy with the freedom to swing on the branches from
heaven and back to earth again.
Erin BresciaWork in the poetry of Robert Frost
One of the reasons Robert Frost’s poetry is enjoyed
is his ability to capture the reality of everyday liv-
ing in language that is accessible to the average
reader. In essence, the subjects of Frost’s poems are
everyday men and women doing ordinary, common
things. The idea of work is mentioned in many
ways throughout his various poems. Many times he
speaks of specific chores and tools, while elsewhere
he alludes to the effect work has on the common
man.
For instance, in his poem “Putting in the Seed,”
he writes of the narrator’s passion for planting apple
seeds in the spring. Though he knows that someone
will stop by soon to fetch him for dinner, he almost
dares them to try to pull him away from his work. In
fact, he realizes that more than likely he who comes
to fetch him will become caught up in his work as
well: the “slave to a springtime passion for the earth”
(l. 9). In this case, the work is pleasurable; the narra-
tor enjoys planting seeds and watching them grow.
Frost also refers to the satisfaction of work. In
“The Pasture,” the narrator has a list of chores that
must be accomplished. He plans to rake the leaves out
of the pasture spring and check on a young calf. He
encourages others to come with him because once the
work is done, there are benefits to reap. For instance,
after cleaning the pasture spring he may stay for a
while “and wait to watch the water clear” (l. 3).
In “The Tuft of Flowers,” Frost writes of how
well it is that men work together. Whether or not