Robert Frost
POETRY
Biography
 Robert Frost was born in San Francisco
in 1874 but after his father died when
he was 11 his family moved to New
England, on the east coast where his
grandparents lived.
 Here he attended high school where he
was honoured as an exceptional
student, with a fellow student Elinor
White. Recognising that they were both
very bright and adored poetry, they
began a relationship and ultimately
married.
Biography
 Frost wished to remove the elitism
from poetry and he disliked poetry
where lines were only meaningful if
you had read obscure books.
 This feeling most likely stems from the
fact that, in spite of his intelligence,
Frost was a college dropout who came
from an unprivileged background.
 Frost had not settled into college life.
He did not take to fraternity life and
hated being apart from Elinor.
Biography
 Frost supported his family through work on
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various farms and through teaching.
In 1912 Frost and his family moved to England,
where, with the money he got from selling his
farm, he was able to devote himself entirely to
writing.
His efforts to establish himself and his work
were almost immediately successful.
Favourable reviews on both sides of the
Atlantic resulted in Frost’s reputation as a
leading poet.
Frost moved back to America in 1915 where,
with the money he got from book sales enabled
him to buy a farm in New Hampshire.
In 1924 he received a Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Biography
 During the 1930’s, as he become ever more
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honoured as a poet, Frost endured a terrible
series of family disasters.
In 1934 his youngest and best loved child,
Marjorie, died a slow death from a fever she
contracted while having her first child.
In 1938 his wife Elinor died suddenly of a heart
attack.
And just as he seemed to be pulling things
together once more, his son Carol committed
suicide in 1940.
Another daughter, Irma, suffered from mental
disorders and was finally institutionalised.
Biography
 In his work, Frost found the greatest meaning
in the natural world.
 Shunning the modern world of the city, Frost
relied upon the natural surroundings of his
various farms to provide him with inspiration
and symbols.
 But he always refused to be classified as a
nature poet, insisting his poems contained so
much more.
 However, the appeal of Robert Frost to so
many people during his lifetime and
afterwards, was the connection he allowed
them to an almost forgotten world of nature in
a modern world of cities and industry.
The Tuft of Flowers
 The speaker comes to a field to turn the
grass another man has cut.
 Before beginning his work, the speaker
looks for the mower but he is already gone.
The speaker resigns himself to the fact that
he must get on with his work alone, just as
the mower had to do.
 He is left feeling dejected and comes to the
conclusion that we are all ultimately alone.
 However, just as he thinks this a butterfly
goes by and distracts him.
The Tuft of Flowers
 The speaker watches the butterfly and it brings a tuft of flowers to his
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attention.
He realises that the mower did not cut them down because he thought
they were beautiful and they gave him great joy.
The flowers inspire the speaker and he begins to think differently about
his circumstances. The fact that the mower spared the flowers makes
him a kindred spirit.
He has made a connection with this man even though he has never met
him and this changes his opinion on man’s condition.
Now he believes men always work together, whether together or apart.
THEMES
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Nature
This poem celebrates the beauty and power of
the natural world. The speaker is inspired and
delighted by the beauty of the flowers.
In a vivid image he describes the flower’s
dramatic colours in terms of flames leaping
from the ground: “A leaping tongue of
bloom”.
The mower too had appreciated the beauty of
the natural world. He decided to spare the
tuft of flowers because the sight of them made
him feel good.
THEMES
Nature
 The natural world consoles the speaker, allowing him
to get over his gloomy mood.
 Before spotting the flowers he had been preoccupied
with his own thoughts, thinking about “questions
that have no reply”.
 However, once he sees them he suddenly engages
with the world around him and his eyes are opened
to all the beauty in nature.
THEMES
Nature
 The natural world also acts a guide for
the speaker. The butterfly draws the
speaker’s attention to the flowers and is
ultimately responsible for the speaker
overcoming his sad mood.
 The tuft of flowers acts as a “message
from the dawn”, or a signal that others
share his appreciation of beauty. The
flowers allow the speaker to overcome his
loneliness.
 They teach him the lesson that nobody is
truly alone in this world.
THEMES
Isolation and Community
 The speaker’s initial loneliness and isolation leads to
a rather depressing conclusion regarding the human
condition, stating that all must be alone.
 As such, he denies the concept of community, of
people working together to enrich each other’s lives
and suggests we are solitary beings, concerned with
only our own lives.
 However, the discovery of the flowers changes the
speaker’s mind.
THEMES
Isolation and Community
 The mower clearly appreciated the beauty of the flowers, as
does the speaker. They experience the same joy.
 These flowers give the speaker a sense of community and
shows him how the actions of others have a bearing on our
lives.
 The mower’s decision to spare the flowers has enriched the
speaker’s day and allowed him to overcome his loneliness.
 In the end, he must acknowledge that we cannot operate
independently from others and that all “men work
together … Whether they work together or apart”.
Questions
Describe the speaker’s view of life as expressed in
lines 8 – 10.
2. What effect does the appearance of the butterfly
have upon the speaker?
3. “I thought of questions that have no reply”.
What sort of questions “have no reply”? What
sort of mood is the speaker in?
4. Though he is still the only person in the field, why
does the speaker say at the end that he “worked
no more alone”?
1.
Mending Wall
Where is this poem set?
Like many of Frost’s poems
‘Mending Wall’ has a rural
setting. The speaker is a
farmer and each spring repairs
gaps in the wall dividing his
property from his neighbour’s.
Mending Wall
What causes the gaps in the wall?
Freezing conditions cause the ground under the wall to
expand: “The frozen-ground-swell under it”. When the frost
melts in the sun the ground moves again. This process
continues throughout the winter and causes the stones that
make up the wall to topple: “spills the upper boulders in the
sun”. As a result large gaps appear.
Mending Wall
How does the speaker feel about those gaps?
Though there seems to be a simple scientific explanation for
the appearance of these gaps, the speaker presents them as a
weird and almost supernatural phenomenon. He claims there
is “something”, some mysterious force that dislikes walls.
However, these are not the only gaps that appear in the wall.
Hunters accompanied by dogs also make gaps. The speaker
fixes those gaps as they appear and differentiates between
them and the naturally occurring gaps he plans to repair with
his neighbour on this spring day.
Mending Wall
How are the naturally occurring
gaps repaired?
The speaker informs the neighbour that
the wall is in need of repair: “I let my
neighbour know”. The two men arrange to
meet and fix the wall: “And on a day we
meet to walk the line/And set the wall
between us once again”. Though the men
work as a team, each remains on his own
property, on his own side of the wall: “we
keep the wall between us as we go”. It is
important that they respect the boundary
between their farms.
Mending Wall
What does the speaker
suggest?
They come to a section of
farmland where there are no
animals, only trees. Apple trees
on the speaker’s side and pine
trees on the neighbour’s. The
speaker suggests that this part of
the wall is unnecessary then.
“There where it is we do not need
the wall”. There are no animals to
cross the boundary and cause
tension between the farmers.
Mending Wall
How does the neighbour react?
The neighbour, however, insists on rebuilding the wall even
though it is serving no practical purpose in this area. He
quotes an old proverb: “Good fences make good neighbours”.
He is guided by this old saying and suggests the boundary
lines between people and their property should always be
clearly defined and respected. This is the only way good
relations can be kept on both sides.
Mending Wall
What is the speaker’s attitude to this proverb?
The fresh spring air makes the speaker feel
mischievous: “Spring is the mischief in me”. He
considers challenging the neighbour on the wisdom
of this proverb: “Why do they make good
neighbours?”.
He wants to reiterate how foolish it seems to build a
wall that is containing nothing.
Mending Wall
What is the speaker’s attitude to this proverb?
He wants to tell the neighbour that there is a certain force in
nature that “doesn’t love” walls and wants to knock them
down whenever it can. He’d like to say how this mysterious
force might be offended by the building of unnecessary walls.
However, the speaker wants the neighbour to acknowledge
the existence of this mysterious force himself: “I’d rather he
said it for himself”.
These mysterious powers remind the speaker of mischievous
elves “but it’s not elves exactly”, this “something” that doesn’t
love a wall.
Mending Wall
What does the speaker think of the neighbour?
The neighbour is guided completely by the proverb handed
down to him by his father and seems pleased with himself for
remembering it.
He has no time for the speaker’s objections to building a wall
where there is no need.
He has not time for the notion of this mysterious
“something”, this force in nature that despises walls. He
answers the speaker’s objections by repeating the old
proverb.
Mending Wall
What does the speaker think of the neighbour?
According to the speaker, the neighbour moves not only
in the physical darkness of the woods where they work
but also in a kind of mental darkness: “He moves in
darkness as it seems to me,/Not of woods only and the
shade of trees”.
This darkness is caused by his failure to question the
wisdom of the proverb, by his refusal to even attempt to
think for himself: “He will not go beyond his father’s
saying”
THEMES
Boundaries
 In some ways this is a poem that emphasises the importance
of walls and boundaries.
 It reminds us that people should have clear and defined
boundaries between them if we want to live in peace and
harmony together.
 The idea is presented that a failure to respect these
boundaries, even when they serve no practical purpose, would
lead to chaos.
 To some degree, the speaker believes in the importance of
boundaries – he repairs the damage caused by hunters
throughout the winter and when spring arrives he is the one to
initiate the process of mending the wall.
THEMES
Boundaries
 It is also important to the neighbour that the wall between the farms be
maintained.
 He is convinced that “Good fences make good neighbours”. Both the
speaker and the neighbour respect the concept of boundaries by staying on
their own property even as they work together.
 Yet the speaker also questions the old tradition and the concept of
boundaries.
 His mischievous mood makes him want to point out the silliness of
building a wall where there are no animals to contain.
 He questions the need for boundaries and seems convinced that there is
some force or power in nature that despises walls – as if the idea of man
made boundaries and restrictions is against nature.
THEMES
Boundaries
 The speaker is quite critical of the neighbour, presenting him as a simple
and unthinking character who behaves almost like a caveman: “an oldstone savage”.
 The speaker’s irritation stems from the neighbour’s refusal to think for
himself or questions the idea of boundaries. The neighbour is wither
unwilling or unable to engage the speaker in a proper debate, relying
instead on the wisdom passed down from his father.
 The speaker feels the neighbour should learn to think for himself and
questions these old sayings and traditions rather than “move in darkness”.
 ‘Mending Wall’ provides a good insight in Frost’s own personality. He
himself suggested “maybe I was both fellows in the poem … a wall builder
and a wall toppler. He makes boundaries and he breaks boundaries.
That’s man.”
THEMES
Nature
 The speaker also seems in two minds about the cause of the
gaps that appear in the wall.
 In one sense the speakers offers a valid explanation for them
suggesting they are the result of frost, a natural process.
 On the other hand, he suggests they are caused by a strange
and invisible “something”, a force that hates walls. This
mysterious power, the speaker suggests, is offended by the
existence of walls: “And to whom I was like to give offence”.
 The poem personifies nature as the force “doesn’t love a wall”.
Nature is depicted as resisting man’s attempt to tame and
control her, to impose order on her wildness with walls,
bridges and boundary lines.
THEMES
Isolation and Community
 An important feature of ‘Mending Wall’ is that walls unite
as well as divide.
 The task of the mending the wall brings the two men
together. It is described almost as an annual social occasion
– “a kind of out-door game”.
 Every spring then, the maintenance of the wall brings
neighbours together and has them working as a team. Their
work is a celebration of community and reaffirms that
boundaries are needed for that community to function.
 The wall, therefore, unites the farmers even as it divides
their land.
LANGUAGE
 The poem features plain, everyday language. However, it has a
very definite rhythm because it is written in iambic
pentameter.
 The poet makes interesting use of repetition. He repeats the
two key phrases: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”
and “Good fences make good neighbours” to highlight the two
competing viewpoints in the poem.
 The poem also features several memorable images: the ground
swelling under the wall, the farmers using a “spell” to keep the
rocks balanced, the neighbour moving like a caveman in the
darkness of the trees.
 There is also the playful image of the speaker’s apple trees
sneaking onto the neighbour’s land to eat his pine cones.
LC Style Questions
‘Mending Wall’ is often describes as a mysterious
poem. How is this sense of mystery created? What
words or phrases give the poem a mystical or other
worldly atmosphere?
2. Twice the speaker refers to “something” that dislikes
walls and “wants them down”. Based on your reading
of the poem suggest what this “something” might be.
3. ‘The speaker of the poem is opposed to the building of
walls.’ Detail the arguments both in favour of and
against this statement. Refer to the poem in your
answer.
1.
‘Out, Out – ’
This is based on a true event which is believed to
have occurred in April 1915, Raymond Fitzgerald, the
son of Frost’s friend and neighbour, lost his hand to
a buzz saw and bled so profusely that he went into
shock, dying of heart failure in spite of his doctor’s
efforts.
‘Out, Out – ’
Frost’s title invites us to compare the poem’s shocking story
with Macbeth’s speech on learning of his wife’s death:
Macbeth says, on learning of the death of Lady Macbeth, his
wife:
She should have died hereafter ;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time ;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
‘Out, Out – ’
 Frost hints at this soliloquy to borrow not only its
theme, but the way Macbeth treated death without
rage, tears, or wailing similar to the young man’s
family: ‘And they, since they / Were not the one
dead, turned to their affairs’
 They deal with death with an understanding of how
little life really means, “a tale/ Told by an idiot, full
of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing”.
Lines 1-8: Setting the scene
 Frost beautifully describes the
landscape of a farm in New
England. A young boys works on
the farm and uses a buzz-saw to cut
pieces of firewood.
 The buzz-saw is presented in a
menacing light. It “snarls and
rattles” like a wild beast. This
suggests how dangerous the saw is
and warns us of the terrible tragedy
that is about to take place.
Lines 9-12
 The workday is almost over and it has been
uneventful: “And nothing happened. Day was all
but done”.
 The poet wishes that the farm workers had stopped
work a little early. They could have given the boy an
extra half-hour off work, a treat that would have
meant a lot to him.
 By finishing early they also could have saved his life.
Lines 13-18: The accident
 The boy’s sister announces that their dinner is
ready. Tragedy strikes as the boy loses
concentration and cuts his hand open with the
buzz-saw.
 The poet describes the saw “leaping” at the boy,
as if attempting to eat him for dinner. In reality,
the boy must gave “given the hand”.
 The poet never describes the injuries in detail.
He response to the accident is conveyed in the
simple but moving exclamation “But the hand!”
 The poet seems unable to describe the saw
slicing through flesh and bone, instead leaving
the gruesome image to our imagination
Lines 19-26: The boy’s reaction to the accident
 The boy’s response is one of shock. His first reaction
is to laugh at the disaster, indicating his disbelief at
his injuries.
 The boy turns to his workmates in appeal but there is
nothing they can do for him.
 The boy quickly realises that his injury is very
serious. He is a “big boy” who is doing “man’s work”.
He realises even if he survives the accident, his life
will be ruined: “Then the boy saw all … all spoiled”.
Lines 27-34: The boy’s death
 The boy’s hand is amputated and after some time, the
person monitoring him realises that something is seriously
wrong: “And then – the watcher at his pulse took fright”.
 The people on the farm can hardly believe the boy is dying
in front of their eyes. “Little – less – nothing!”
 Finally, the boy’s heart stops altogether: “And that ended it”
 The poem’s final lines seem very cruel and cold. The boy is
dead and gone and there is nothing anybody can do about
it: “No more to build on there”. Life, the speaker maintains,
has to go on: “And they, since they/were not the one dead,
turned to their affairs”.
THEME: The nearness of death
 This poem makes the point that death is always near. All it
takes is a simple accident and our lives can be snatched
away from us in an instant.
 This poem reminds us that in the middle of even the most
ordinary day, life can be ended.
 The poem then, urges us not to take being alive for granted,
to appreciate the gift of life while we still have it.
 The poem also highlights the terrifying randomness of
human existence. Any of us can be killed at almost any
moment in a random accident, extinguished like the candle
the title refers to.
THEME: A cold view of the world
 Many feel like ‘Out, Out – ’ presents a cold, brutal
view of life and death.
 There is something shocking about the way the
people on the farm so quickly “turn to their
affairs” after the boy’s death.
 They have no time to mourn the boy’s loss. Instead,
they must get on with their own lives, deal with
their own struggles and difficulties.
 The poem suggests that in this world there is little
room for emotion and sentimentality.
THEME: A cold view of the world
 Macbeth’s soliloquy, where the title comes from,
suggests that human life is ultimately pointless:
“Out, out, brief candle!”
 The poem suggests that life is nothing but a
desperate struggle for survival, an endless fight to
build a life for ourselves. But what does it really
matter when that life can be snatched away from
us so quickly?
 Once we are gone, the people left behind must
simply get on with things.
THEME: Child labour
 It is also possible to read the poem as a protest
against child labour.
 The boy is still a “child at heart”, an innocent lad
who takes great pleasure in getting a half-hour off
work.
 Yet this child is forced to do a “man’s work”,
labouring all day with a highly dangerous power tool.
 The poem suggests children should be free to be
children, to enjoy a time of fun and innocence before
they are forced to deal with the difficulties of the
adult world.
LANGUAGE
 Alliteration is used in the lines that describe the pleasant
smell of the fresh cut sticks: “sweet scented stuff”. This adds to
the pleasant and musical effect of the beginning of the poem.
 There is also a beautiful image of the mountains on the
horizon, an image the farm workers are too busy to take in or
fully appreciate.
 Frost makes excellent use of onomatopoeia in the use of the
buzz-saw. In the phrases “snarled and rattled” we can almost
hear the noise made by the saw as the boy uses it and adds to
the threatening atmosphere.
 Frost also makes excellent use of personification in describing
this potentially deadly tool. It is presented almost as a living
thing, a vicious snarling animal that is capable of leaping out
at the boy and injuring him.
Acquainted With the Night
 The speaker declares he is “acquainted with the
night”. His nights are spent walking
through deserted streets.
 The city at night is depicted as a sad
and melancholy environment. It
rains constantly: “I have walked out
in rain – and back in rain”.
 The lanes he passes are desolate and
depressing: “the saddest city lane”.
Acquainted With the Night
 The city at night is also depicted as a dangerous and menacing
environment.
 It is hard to read the lines about the “interrupted cry” without
suspecting the person crying out is the victim of some violent
act.
 The sighting of the night watchman further reinforces this
sense of menace, suggesting that the city streets are dangerous
by night and need a police presence.
Acquainted With the Night
 The speaker seems utterly isolated as he wanders
through this dangerous and depressing landscape.
 Even when he comes across another human being he is
unable or unwilling to communicate. He is barely able
to look the night watchman in the eye as he passes him
by: “And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain”.
 The speaker looks at the moon, which using a
wonderful metaphor he describes as a “luminary” or
glowing clock. The moons suggests the time is “neither
wrong nor right” which indicates both the blank
numbness associated with the speaker’s depression and
the fact that nobody is waiting for him to return.
THEME: Sorrow
 The poem provides a moving portrayal of a mind in
the grip of depression. The speaker is a man whose
inner demons will give him no rest.
 There is something terrible and bleak about the fact
he is driven to keep walking all night. His inner
turmoil will not allow him to sleep, relax or even sit
still.
 He must always keep moving, his physical
restlessness mirroring the restless, agitated condition
of his mind.
THEME: Sorrow
 The dark, desolate streets through which he walks
reflect the speaker’s depression.
 There are vivid images of empty and menacing streets,
the sad and sordid lanes, the darkness at the edge of
town where the streetlights are left behind. This grim
urban landscape serves as the perfect metaphor for the
speaker’s downcast state of mind.
 Many people who suffer from depression describe how
it seems that nothing can ever change, that the world is
locked in a constant pattern of despair and
hopelessness. ‘Acquainted With the Night” illustrates
this powerfully.
THEME: Sorrow
 The speaker appears to be trapped in a loop, as he
repeats the same steps over and over again.
 Sufferers of depression also describe how difficult they
find it to communicate or to connect with another
human being. This aspect of depression is also
reflected in the poem.
 The speaker never tells us what misfortune, if any, has
plunged him into such despair. In the poem then,
communication between the poet and the readers is
also blocked.
 This theme of communication breakdown is clear in
several parts of the poem: the speaker silently passing
the night watchman, the “interrupted cry”, even the
moon’s lack of answers.
LANGUAGE
 ‘Acquainted With the Night” is a sonnet. Like all
sonnets, it has fourteen lines. Most sonnets are
divided into an eight line octet and a six lines sestet.
Unusually then for a sonnet, this poem is divided
into four three lines stanzas and a final two line
couplet.
 The poem’s form is in keeping with its theme. Its first
and last lines are the same, reflecting the fact that the
speaker is going round in circles.
 The poem is made up of six sentences and each ones
begins with the word “I”, suggesting that the speaker
is trapped in his own mind, in his internal suffering.
LANGUAGE
 The structure of ‘Acquainted With the Night’ echoes
that of Dante’s ‘Inferno”, a poem which describes a
journey into hell.
 Just as Dante described an actual journey into the
physical reality of hell, so Frost describes a journey
into a psychological or mental hell, a state of total
despair.
 Frost vividly creates the sinister atmosphere of t he
city at night. In a few short lines he sketches an
atmospheric landscape of deserted and rain-soaked
streets, of depressing, rundown lanes, of darkness
illuminated only by feeble streetlights.
LANGUAGE
 Frost’s use of assonance (repetition of vowel sounds)
and alliteration throughout the poem contributes to
the haunting and despairing mood. They slow the
pace of the verse and create a sad, aching music.
 We see this in line 4 with its repeated ‘o’ and ‘a’
sound. It is also evident in line 7 with its repeated ‘o’
sounds.
 The slow, steady iambic rhythm of the lines suggests
the sound of footsteps echoing on a midnight street.
The Road Not Taken
 The poet describes a day when he came to a fork in
the road while he was walking through the woods.
The speaker wishes he could somehow have travelled
both roads simultaneously but since that is
impossible he has a decision to make.
 He stood for a long time inspecting one road
carefully before deciding on the “the other”.
 The speaker decides to take it because it was “grassy”
and needed to be worn down more than the first
road.
The Road Not Taken
 But he then immediately contradicts himself saying
that both roads were worn “about the same”. In fact,
the roads were very much alike.
 The speaker thinks he might return to the other road
at a later point: “I kept the first for another day!” But
he knew even then the chances of getting back to the
same point were unlikely.
 The poem finishes with the poet imagining how he
will recount the moment later in his life. He will tell
the story “with a sigh”. He will describe how he took
the more difficult path: “I took the one less traveled
by” and that “made all the difference” to his life.
THEME: The Nature of Choice
 This poem is a reflection on how important choices are
made. We might deliberate for a long time, as the poet does,
but the choice is never easy.
 The metaphor of choosing a road suggests the idea of
making an important, perhaps life-changing, decision.
 We can only see so far into the future, only anticipate so
much. Frost describes how he could only see so far down
one of the paths before it turned into the undergrowth.
 In this way, the right choice is not always obvious. We
might have to choose between two ways that are equally
appealing or “just as fair”.
THEME: The Nature of Choice
 The poem also suggests that the important choices
we make in life are often based on impulse and
chance. The way the poet closely inspected the first
path but then “took the other” suggests that the
choice was ultimately impulsive and he had no way of
knowing if it was the right choice.
 Though he originally decided both roads were very
similar, in hindsight he believes his was a harder
road and “that has made all the difference”.
However, it is unclear whether he means this is a
positive or negative light .
THEME: Sorrow and Despair
 Like many of Frost’s poems, ‘The Road Not Taken’
contains elements of sorrow and despair. The title
suggests that is what the poet did not get to
experience that preoccupies him, more than the
memories he has experienced.
 The poet is sorry he is unable to travel both roads
and has to choose between them. There is a real
sense of sorrow to the acknowledgment that he will
never be able to return to this fork and see where the
other road led.

LANGUAGE
 The poem uses the metaphor of the fork of the road
to represent important choices we must make in life.
 It suggests life is a journey and that there are
different paths we can take along the way.
 The fact that both paths look the same suggests that
the choices we face are often not as clear as we might
like them to be and that chance plays a big part in
everything we do.
 Lines 2-4 begin with the same word. The repeated
use of the word “and” at the beginning of these lines
seems to reflect the speaker’s uncertainty as he tries
to make a choice.
LANGUAGE
 Frost paints a vivid image of the scene that lay before
him as he walked through the woods. He mentions
that the wood was “yellow” and that leaves covered
the ground, revealing the season.
 He also describes how the road “bent in the
undergrowth”. The description works to create a
clear image that stays with us long after we have
finished reading the poem.
Spring Pools
 This poem is set in a forest at the very
beginning of spring. Ice has melted on
surrounding mountaintops and melt
water has poured down creating pools
upon the forest floor.
 According to the speaker, these pools
“chill and shiver” which suggests how very
cold they are.
 Because it is very early springtime there
are no leaves on the trees. The pools,
therefore, reflect an almost perfect mirror
image of the sky above them: “These pools
that, though in forests, still reflect/The
total sky almost without defect”.
Spring Pools
 Some winter flowers have taken root in the moisture
around the pool’s edges. We can imagine these as
pale and fragile blooms and picture how they seem to
“chill and shiver”
 While the trees are presently leafless, each has
thousands of buds that are “pent-up” with energy
and bursting with life.
 Soon leaves will sprout from each of these buds and
the forest of bare trees will be transformed into lush
and leafy “summer woods”
Spring Pools
 In the process of flowering, however, the trees will destroy the spring
pools. The water in the pools will be “sucked up” by the trees’ roots.
 The trees will “drink up” the pool water and use its nourishment to being
forth leaves: “To bring dark foliage on”
 The trees will also destroy the flowers that grow beside the pools. Their
new leaves will “darken nature”, will prevent sunlight from reaching the
floor of the forest. The flowers will then wither and die.
 By blossoming, then, the trees will “sweep away” both the pools and the
nearby fragile flowers.
Spring Pools
 The speaker regrets that both the pools and the flowers will
“soon be gone”. He urges the trees to “think twice” before
they commit this act of destruction.
 The poet addresses the woodland trees as if they had minds
of their own, as if they are capable of hearing him and
choosing not to consume the water from the spring pools.
 We realise, however, that the speaker’s pleas will serve no
purpose. Nature, as always, must take its course and the
pools will disappear into the forest’s roots. The wintery
scene he loves so much will soon be no more.
THEME: Nature
 Frost was famous as a writer who loved
and celebrated the New England
countryside. ‘Spring Pools” is one of
Frost’s classic nature poems, a moving
and vivid portrayal of nature’s fragile
beauty.
 The scene has an unusual icy beauty:
leafless trees, the shivering winter
flowers, and the freezing pools that
reflect the sky with crystal clarity.
 The water in the pools is described as
“flowery” because it allows flowers to
grow around its edges and reflects their
beauty on the surface.
THEME: Nature
 Similarly, the description of the
flowers as “watery” reminds us that
they grow at the pool’s edge,
suggesting their weakness and
fragility.
 The poem also reminds us how death
and life coexist at the heart of nature.
With the changing of each season
some elements of nature are
destroyed and some are born again.
 The spring pools and winter flowers
will be “swept away” so that the trees
may flourish.
THEME: Nature
 The poem is keenly aware of just how destructive
nature can be. The trees are presented as sinister,
almost malevolent “powers”.
 They are powerful and strong with their “pent-up
buds” full of energy waiting to be unleashed. They
possess the ability to “darken nature”. The trees are
presented as a threatening, destructive force,
associated with such negative verbs as “blot out” and
“sweep away”.
 An important aspect of the second stanza is the
difference between the portrayal of the pools and
flowers on the one hand and the trees on the other.
THEME: Nature
 The pools and flowers are presented as fragile and
vulnerable, innocent aspects of the woodland that have
little capacity for survival.
 Yet the poem also considers the way nature moves in cycles
of death and rebirth. Each elements of nature dies and is
reborn as the seasons change.
 Though the spring pools will “soon be gone”, they will
return next year when the snows melt once more.
 The poem suggests that nothing in nature is ever
permanently destroyed. The poet resents the trees for
destroying the pools and flowers, yet he knows deep down
that nature can only take its course.
LANGUAGE
 ‘Spring Pools’ is written in two stanzas, each rhyming
AABCBC. The two stanzas mirror each other almost
perfectly, just as the pools reflect the sky above them.
 Frost uses vivid imagery throughout the poem. The image
of the spring pools possesses a strange, wintery beauty. It is
an uncluttered scene of light and clarity, with the pools
reflecting the sky so perfectly.
 It is an also image of immense fragility, these weak “watery
flowers” and “flowery waters” will be swept away as the
trees’ leaves begin to appear.
LANGUAGE
 Usually when we think of summer, we think of a happy, innocent time.
Winter, on the other hand, often has negative associations. In this
poem, however, Frost performs an unusual reversal of these
stereotypes.
 The imagery that depicts the arrival of summer is portrayed as
menacing and destructive, bringing with it the end of this beautiful
scene.
 Assonance is used skilfully throughout the poem. The repeated ‘I’ sound
in “chill and shiver”, the repeated ‘a’ sound in “dark foliage” and
“darken nature”. This gives the poem a pleasant verbal music.
 Frost also uses personification, referring to the trees as if they
possessed human reasoning and were capable of deciding whether or
not to use their power to “darken nature”. By doing so, he powerfully
conveys his appreciation of the spring pools and his dismay at their
destruction.