Modernism (2) and Robert Frost
Lectured by Hu Lingli
Foreign Languages Department
May 24th, 2011
Study Objects
 Historical backgrounds (modernism)
 Brief introduction to Robert Frost
 Detailed analysis of “The Road Not
Taken”
 Brief comment on “Stopping by the
Woods on a Snowy Evening”
 Robert Frost’s research
Historical Backgrounds
 WWI was a dividing line between the 19th century
and modern America, and WWII was another
dividing line separating America from the
contemporary period.
 However, the 1920s and 1930s, blocked off from
other periods in American history by a world war
at either end, were very different from each other.
They possessed distinguished features and
produced writers of different styles.
America in the 1920s
This is a time of carefree(安逸的) prosperity,
free from the world’s problems, bewildering
social change, a feverish pursuit of pleasure,
selfish frivolity(轻浮), abandonment of social
customs.
 Industrialization and urbanization.
 Women’s liberation.
 Mass media and luxuries.
 A sense of disillusionment.
The Lost Generation
 Disillusioned by the War and disgusted about the
society, many intellectuals and young people fled to
Europe, standing aside and writing about what they
saw—the failure of communication among Americans
and the failure of the American society. They believed
that the American bourgeois society was hypocritical,
vulgar and crude, concerning only with making money.
It was a society where individual thought and
individual expression were crushed. They were
looking forward for a complete change.
 These people include Fitzgerald, Hemingway, e. e.
cummings, Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O’Neill. Gertrude
Stein.
America in the 1930s
 This is a time of poverty, unemployment,
bleakness, important social movements, a new
social consciousness and social upheaval. Some
important things happened in history included:
 The Crash. The collapse of the Stock Market in
1929 brought about an abrupt end to the
prosperity in the previous decade. Workers were
unemployed whereas the farmers were driven off
the land by drought and debts. By 1933, America
was close to economic collapse.
America in 1930s
 The New Deal. Thanks to Franklin Roosevelt who
launched the New Deal, improvements were seen
again and a lot of changes to benefit people were
discovered.
 The Leftists(左翼分子). The expatriates came back
from Paris, taking an active part in political agitation
and social improvements. They spoke on behalf of the
oppressed and the suffering people, looking to Russia
as an example of a better, more secure social system.
 It is said that people in the 1920s believed in
everything, people in the 1930s believed in one thing,
and people in the 1940s believed in nothing.
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
 A poem begins in
delight and ends
in wisdom.
 My quarrel with
the world is a
lover’s quarrel.
Biographical introduction
 Birth and family:
was born in San Francisco, but known as a New
England poet. At the age of 10, his father died of T. B.
and the family carried his body to be buried in New
England, and they were too poor to go back to San
Francisco.
 Education:
Frost entered Dartmouth College, but soon left; later
on he tried college again at Harvard, but left at the
end of two years, bearing an enduring dislike for
academic convention. Then he lived by farming, at the
same time writing poetry. He got T. B., and began to
live in the countryside at the suggestion of a doctor.
He used to say he was one and a half men—a half
teacher, a half farmer, and a half poet.
Personal Life: grief and loss
 Robert Frost's personal life was plagued with grief
and loss. In 1885 when Frost was 11, his father
died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with just
eight dollars. Frost's mother died of cancer in
1900. In 1920, Frost had to commit his younger
sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died
nine years later. Mental illness apparently ran in
Frost's family, as both he and his mother suffered
from depression, and his daughter Irma was
committed to a mental hospital in 1947. Frost's
wife, Elinor, also experienced bouts of depression.
 Elinor and Robert Frost had six children: son Elliot
(1896–1904, died of cholera); daughter Lesley
Frost Ballantine (1899–1983);son Carol (1902–
1940, committed suicide); daughter Irma (1903–
1967); daughter Marjorie (1905–1934, died as a
result of puerperal fever after childbirth); and
daughter Elinor Bettina (died just three days after
her birth in 1907). Only Lesley and Irma outlived
their father. Frost's wife, who had heart problems
throughout her life, developed breast cancer in
1937, and died of heart failure in 1938.
Continuing…
 Honorable things:
a. By the end of his life he had become a national
poet; he received honorary degrees from 44
colleges and universities and won Pulitzer Prize
four times;
b. the United States senate passed resolutions
honoring his birthdays and when he was eightyseven he read his poetry at the inauguration of
President John F. Kennedy.
His Major works
 A boy’s will (1913)
一个男孩的意愿
 North of Boston (1914) 波士顿的北部
 New Hampshire (1923) Pulitzer Prize winner
 Collected Poems (1930) Pulitzer Prize winner
 A Further Range (1936) Pulitzer Prize winner
 A Witness Tree (1942) Pulitzer Prize winner
Frost’s writing features
 Frost took no part in the literary movements of the
20th century. He did not experiment with form, as
many poets did in the 1920s, but used traditional
forms such as the blank verse, plain language,
and a graceful style. (Wordsworthian style )
 He used symbols from everyday country life to
express his deep ideas. As a whole, Frost’s art is
an act of clarification, which, without simplifying
the truth, renders it in some degree accessible to
everyone. (Emerson)
Frost’s writing features
 He is highly regarded for his
realistic depictions of rural life
and his command of American
colloquial speech.
His work frequently employed
settings from rural life in New
England in the early twentieth
century, using them to examine
complex social and
philosophical themes.
Frost’s main ideas
 his poetry reflects the fragmentation of modern
experience and alienation among modern men.
The world of Frost can be appalling and
terrifying.
 His concern with nature reflected deep moral
uncertainties. He understood the terror and
tragedy, and at the same time, its beauty.
The Road Not Taken (Stanza 1)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
The Road Not Taken (stanza 2)
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
The Road Not Taken (stanza 3)
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
The Road Not Taken (stanza 4)
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
How did this poem come about?
Frost claims that he wrote this
poem about his friend Edward
Thomas, with whom he had
walked many times in the
woods near London. Frost has
said that while walking they
would come to different paths
and after choosing one,
Thomas would always felt
wondering what they might
have missed by not taking the
other path.
Discussion questions
 If there are two roads before you, will you choose
the more-trodden road or the less-trodden road?
Why?
 What do the roads symbolize?
 Does the speaker regret making such a choice?
 Why is the poem entitled “The Road Not Taken”?
 Do you think the message in the poem is also
meaning in your life experience?
Study objects
 Examine the poetic form
 Describe the similarities and differences of
these two roads. Which one does the speaker
take?
 How do you understand the word “sigh”?Is it a
kind of nostalgic relief or regret?
 What might the two roads stand for in the
speaker’s mind?
 What is the theme of this poem?
Poetic form
“The Road Not Taken” consists of
four stanzas of five lines. The
rhyme scheme is ABAAB; the
rhymes are strict and masculine,
with the notable exception of the
last line (we do not usually stress
the -ence of difference). There are
four stressed syllables per line,
varying on an iambic tetrameter
base.
Understanding Stanza 1
 the dilemma he encountered.
He had been out walking the
woods and came to a fork of
two roads. Then, he stood
looking as far down each one
as he could see, pondering
which route to go.
 The roads and the fork of two
roads are metaphorical and
symbolic.
Understanding stanza 2
 Which road did the speaker take?
 Describe the similarities and differences of
these two roads. Which one does the speaker
take?
Similarities: both of the roads are attractive(fair)
Differences: one is quiet and grassy, lesstraveled; the other is trodden by many people
and flat
Understanding stanza 3
 In the third stanza, the poet continued to cogitate
upon the differences between the two roads.
Greed as another nature of mankind, he
wondered maybe one day he could come back
and try the other one.
 However, reason made him doubt he would be
able to, for in life one thing leads to another and
time is limited. Once he chose to be a poet, hardly
can he be a farmer again. Life would push him to
carry on what he had chosen.
Understanding stanza 4
 How do you understand the word “sigh”?Is it a kind of
nostalgic relief or regret?
The word “sigh” is a tricky word. Because sigh can be
interpreted into nostalgic relief or regret. If it is the
relief sigh, then the difference means the speaker
feels glad with the road he took. If it is the regret sigh,
then the difference would not be good. Hence, sigh is
ambigous here for the speaker is not showing whether
his choice is right or wrong.
What might the two roads stand for?
 In the speaker’s mind, the two roads
not only refer to the real roads he has
to take more sigificantly, it means two
different ways of life when one
hesitates before the life’s crossroad.
 It also suggests that he doesn’t follow
suit but employs the traditional pattern
in spite of the influence of modernist
innovation.
Themes
 Choice is inevitable but you never know the
outcome of your choice until you come to the end.
 No right or wrong, persisting with your choice is
most important.
 Different choices only mean different life
experiences. Be brave to choose and keep going
on.
Epigrams concerning the topic of “road”
 条条道路通罗马。
 希望是本无所谓有，无所谓无的。这正如地上
的路，其实地上本没有路，走的人多了，也便
成了路。
 走自己的路让别人去说吧！
 路遥知马力，日久见人心。
 书山有路勤为径，学海无涯苦作舟。
 山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村。
 路漫漫其修远兮，吾将上下而求索。
Suggestions for reading “Stopping by
Woods on a Snowy Evening”
 Identify the poetic form
 Notice the abundant
imagery (visual,
auditory, tactile)
 Symbolism (woods)
 The poet’s moral
concern (temptation,
obligation)
Study Questions
 What is the subject matter of the poem?
 What is the function of the horse?
 What is the speaker’s attitude towards the
woods?
 Why does the speaker repeat “And miles to go
before I sleep”?
 What musical devices does the poem contain?
(The poem consists of four (almost) identically
constructed stanzas. Each line is iambic, with four
stressed syllable)
Comment
 The basic conflict in the poem, resolved in the
last stanza, is between an attraction toward the
woods and the pull of responsibility outside of
the woods. What do woods represent?
Something good? Something bad? Woods are
sometimes a symbol for wildness, madness, the
pre-rational, the looming irrational. But these
woods do not seem particularly wild. They are
someone’s woods, someone’s in particular—the
owner lives in the village. But that owner is in
the village on this, the darkest evening of the
year—so would any sensible person be.
 That is where the division seems to lie,
between the village (or “society,” “civilization,”
“duty,” “sensibility,” “responsibility”) and the
woods (that which is beyond the borders of the
village and all it represents). If the woods are
not particularly wicked, they still possess the
seed of the irrational; and they are, at night,
dark—with all the varied connotations of
darkness.
Robert Frost’s Research
 The interpretations of Frost’s major poems: The Road
Not Taken, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy
Evening (themes, artistic features)
 Ecological view reflected in Frost’s poetry
 Frost’s philosophical ideas exemplified in Frost’s
poetry
 Future researches: comparative studies (Robert Frost
& Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Robert
Burns)
Homework
 A Self-study of “Mending the Wall”
a. What does the wall symbolize?
b. Do you think this poem has practical
guiding significance in your/our life?
Thank you for your attention!