Martha J. Rogus, Week 3 – Essay
“Directive” by Robert Frost (P.113)
The Blank Verse is the best choice of form for Robert Frost’s Directive. This form allows Frost
to use a unique style at the beginning of Directive by catching our attention with monosyllables
instead of iambic pentameter in the first line of this poem (Strand and Boland, 2000).
Furthermore, Blank Verse gives Frost the flexibility he needs for this narrative. And, because
Mr. Frost wrote about nature and was influenced by Tennyson’s “Ulysses” and other Georgian
poets (Strand and Boland, 2000), Blank Verse is the best choice for Directive.
Frost catches our attention with monosyllables instead of iambic in the first line (Strand and
Boland, 2000). He writes, “Back out of all this now too much for us.” This poem was written in
1942 when Frost was 68 (Canada, 1997). The poem takes a look back into the past, so the
opening line makes a lot of sense. The use of monosyllables suggests a slowing down, such as
slowing down because of one’s age. He later writes, “Of being watched from forty cellar holes /
As if by eye pairs out of forty firkins.” A firkin is an old English unit of measure, which also
gives it a sense of age and time gone by. Blank Verse allows Frost to use monosyllables in order
to convey a sense of slowing down, or leisure, while looking into past events.
Blank Verse provides Frost the flexibility to write this narrative not only because of the meter he
chose, but also because the verse does not have to rhyme (McLaughlin, 1999), and Frost chose
not to Rhyme Directive. This narrative would not flow as smoothly if he had chose to rhyme it.
For example lines 36 – 38 do not rhyme. “And if you’re lost enough to find yourself / By now,
pull in your ladder road behind you / And put a sign up CLOSED to all but me.” The words are
certainly sustained by the meter and tone, and trying to rhyme any words in those phrases would
most likely skew the meaning. So, the flexibility of the Blank Verse granted Frost the freedom
to express this heartfelt sentiment, which gives this poem further appeal.
Frost wrote about nature and was influenced by Tennyson’s Ulysses and Georgian poets (Strand
and Boland, 2000). Perhaps because of this influence Frost chose to write lengthy, nature related
narratives without restriction, and Blank Verse allowed those freedoms. In lines 49 – 54, he
talks about a brook that was important in some way to a house. He tells us this brook remains
calm and under restraint not to rage. He gives us an idea of what a stream would do if it did rage
at the end of this passage. He writes, “Your destination and your destiny’s / A brook that was
the water of the house, / Cold as spring as yet so near its sources, / Too lofty and original to rage.
/ (We know the valley streams that when aroused / Will leave their tatters hung on barb and
thorn.) The streams and brooks you would find in nature provide Frost the metaphor he needs
for this lengthy narrative, and writing about nature is acceptable in Blank Verse.
When Frost wrote this poem, he was in the golden years of his career. It’s no doubt that having
been influenced by the poets of his time, especially the Georgian Poets, he would desire to write
lengthy narratives in the spirit of his contemporaries. It was said he found a style and revealed
that style with the phrase at the beginning of this poem using this monosyllabic model that was
Frost’s own creation (Strand and Boland, 2000). This combined with the flexibility of Blank
Verse and the influences of other poets and their narratives, the Blank Verse provided Frost with
the opportunity and enough structure to give this narrative shape and meaning.
References
Canada, M. (1997). University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Retrieved from the Web on June 21, 2009
at http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/frost.htm
McLaughlin, D. (1999). University of Iowa. Retrieved from the Web on June 21, 2009 at http://www.uni.
edu/~gotera/CraftOfPoetry/blankverse.html
Strand, M. & Boland, E. (2000). The Making of a Poem. New York: W.W. Norton and
Company.
Wikianswers. (2009). Georgian Poetry. Retrieved from the Web on June 21, 2009 at http://www.
answers.com/topic/georgian-poetry