Trees
Trees delineate borders in Frost’s poetry. They not only
mark boundaries on earth, such as that between a pasture and a forest,
but also boundaries between earth and heaven. In some poems, such
as “After Apple-Picking” and “Birches,” trees are the link between
earth, or humanity, and the sky, or the divine. Trees function as boundary
spaces, where moments of connection or revelation become possible.
Humans can observe and think critically about humanity and the divine
under the shade of these trees or standing nearby, inside the trees’
boundary space. Forests and edges of forests function similarly
as boundary spaces, as in “Into My Own” (1915)
or “Desert Places.” Finally, trees acts as boundaries or borders
between different areas or types of experiences. When Frost’s speakers
and subjects are near the edge of a forest, wandering in a forest,
or climbing a tree, they exist in liminal spaces, halfway between
the earth and the sky, which allow the speakers to engage with nature
and experience moments of revelation.
Birds and Birdsong
In Frost’s poetry, birds represent nature, and their songs
represent nature’s attitudes toward humanity. Birds provide a voice
for the natural world to communicate with humans. But their songs
communicate only nature’s indifference toward the human world, as
in “The Need of Being Versed in Country Things” (1923) and
“Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same” (1942).
Their beautiful melodies belie an absence of feeling for humanity
and our situations. Nevertheless, as a part of nature, birds have
a right to their song, even if it annoys or distresses
human listeners. In “A Minor Bird” (1928),
the speaker eventually realizes that all songs must continue to
exist, whether those songs are found in nature, as with birds, or
in culture, as with poems. Frost also uses birds and birdsong
to symbolize poetry, and birds become a medium through
which to comment on the efficacy of poetry as a tool of emotional
expression, as in “The Oven Bird” (1920).
Solitary Travelers
Solitary travelers appear frequently in Frost’s poems,
and their attitudes toward their journeys and their surroundings
highlight poetic and historical themes, including the figure of
the wanderer and the changing social landscape of New England in
the twentieth century. As in romanticism, a literary
movement active in England from roughly 1750 to 1830,
Frost’s poetry demonstrates great respect for the social outcast,
or wanderer, who exists on the fringes of a community. Like the
romanticized notion of the solitary traveler, the poet was also
separated from the community, which allowed him to view social interactions,
as well as the natural world, with a sense of wonder, fear, and
admiration. Able to engage with his surroundings using fresh eyes, the
solitary traveler simultaneously exists as a part of the landscape
and as an observer of the landscape. Found in “Stopping By Woods
on a Snowy Evening” (1923), “Into My Own,”
“Acquainted with the Night,” and “The Road Not Taken” (1920),
among other poems, the solitary traveler demonstrates the historical
and regional context of Frost’s poetry. In the early twentieth century,
the development of transportation and industry created the social
type of the wandering “tramp,” who lived a transient lifestyle,
looking for work in a rapidly developing industrial society. Like
Frost’s speakers and subjects, these people lived on the outskirts of
the community, largely away from the warmth and complexity of human
interaction.
