Robert+Frost-+Biographical+Information,+Themes,+Imagery,+Poetic++techniques

Robert Frost [1874-1963]
==Relevant Background ==

Among his early jobs, he taught school and worked in a mill and as a newspaper reporter. He remained a teacher and lecturer for much of his life.
==His poetry is the story of a man who escaped to the country, because he felt his vocation was to be alone. By his own admission he was ‘unwilling to explain’ his life choice, but his poetry is a symbolic record of his reflections and realizations.==

==Frost is often called a pastoral poet, a poet who portrays the benevolent side of country life. This is true in the sense that he expressed the beauty of the landscape of New England in his poetry. But there was usually a dark or troubled spirit at work in his poems. Nature is not always benevolent in Frost’s poems.==

==Though he was referred to as a nature poet, Frost disliked this label because he usually included people in his poetry. Frost’s poetry is known for its country philosophy and wisdom. Yet there is an edgy and critical commentary on human life lurking in many of his poems. Frost was not just a happy and easy-going woodland philosopher.==

==Frost was a poet of deep thoughts. Behind his descriptions of nature and everyday activities, you can find a deeper meaning. When he described events, Frost usually had a moral point or strange observation to make. He explored an indifferent universe with its mysteries of darkness and irrationality.==

Frost liked to write poetry in the language he heard spoken everyday. The many everyday phrases in his poetry show this aspect of his style. This trait makes his poetry modern.
==In many of his poems, his rhythm is based on the way the human voice groups or assembles words and sounds in spoken English. While many of his poems have a regular number of syllables and would fit into a traditional system of poetic rhythm, it is better to listen for the rhythm of the everyday speaking voice in Frost’s poems.==

==Frost, therefore, is a blend of the traditional and modern poet. Some of his poems have regular lines of ten syllables. This type of line was traditionally divided into ten units of sound. Often in a Frost line of ten or so syllables, there are four units of sound based on the natural rhythm of speech.==

Themes
==1. Frost explored the relationship between humanity and nature. Frost’s pastoral scenes are often sources of philosophical insights: ==

I took the one less travelled by,
==And that has made all the difference’ [The Road] == ==‘Earth's the right place for love: ==

‘He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
==My apple trees will never get across == ==And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him’ [Mending Wall] == ==‘And from there <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">those that lifted eyes could count ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘The butterfly and I had lit upon,
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Nevertheless, <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">a message from the dawn’ [The Tuft] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘The trees…<span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">let them think twice before they use their powers ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">These flowery waters and these watery flowers’ [Spring Pools]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘What but <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">design of darkness to appal? — ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">If design govern in a thing so small’ [Design]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">‘I am overtired ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Of the great harvest I myself desired’ [Apple Picking]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">2. Frost believed that human beings live isolated lives, despite being in close proximity to each other: ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘We keep the <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">wall between us as we go’ [Mending Wall] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Good <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">fences make good neighbours’ [Mending Wall] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">I took the <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">one less travelled by’ [The Road] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘And they, since they
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Were not the one dead, <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">turned to their affairs’ [Out, Out] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘And I must be, as he had been— <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">alone, ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">“Whether they work together or apart”.' [The Tuft]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">‘Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him’ [The Tuft] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘When <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">far away an interrupted cry == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Came over houses from another street, But not to call me back or say good-bye’ [Acquainted] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Whose only play was what he found himself
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Summer or winter, and could play <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">alone’ [Birches] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘No memory of having starred
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Atones for <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">later disregard’ [Provide Provide] ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">3. While Frost often emphasised human loneliness and alienation, he sometimes believed that human solidarity really existed. In some poems, Frost believed that despite our separation as individuals, humans are social beings. At times he felt the exhilaration of spiritual bonds with people; at other times he felt the need to even purchase friendship. ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[Argue Frost’s ambivalent attitude to isolation and intimacy by considering the quotes used for theme 2 and the additional quotes below for theme three] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘And feel <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">a spirit kindred to my own; ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">So that henceforth I worked no more alone’ [Tuft]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘ “Men work <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">together, ” I told him from the heart, ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And on a day <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">we meet to walk the line’ [Mending Wall] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Better to go down dignified
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">With <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">boughten friendship at your side ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">4. Frost attempted to get at the heart of the mystery of living:
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘And <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">looked down one as far as I could ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘The gaps I mean,
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">No one has seen them made or heard them made, ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">But at spring mending-time we find them there’ [Mending Wall]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘He must have given the hand. <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">However it was, ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Neither refused the meeting’ [Out,Out]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘I thought of <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">questions that have no reply’ [Tuft] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘I have passed by the watchman on his beat
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And dropped my eyes, <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">unwilling to explain’ [Acquainted] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Let them think twice before they use their <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">powers ’ [Spring Pools] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">‘What brought the kindred spider to that height, ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Then steered the white moth thither in the night?’ [Design]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘I cannot rub <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">the strangeness from my sight ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘It's when I'm weary of considerations,
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And life is too much like a <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">pathless wood’ [Birches] ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">5. Frost explored the relationship between nature and human beings. Nature has emotional, spiritual or sensual effects: ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Sheer morning <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">gladness at the brim’ [Tuft] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘A <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">message from the dawn ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">That made me hear the wakening birds around’ [Tuft]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘<span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Something there is that doesn't love a wall, ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">But <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">He said it for himself’ [Mending Wall]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘<span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And from there <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">those that lifted eyes could count ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">scent of apples: I am drowsing off’ [Apple Picking] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall’ [Apple Picking] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘So was I once myself a <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">swinger of birches. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And so I dream of going back to be’ [Birches]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Earth's the right place for <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">love : ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">I don't know where it's likely to go better’ [Birches]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">6. Frost shows an awareness that all life is brief and that it either fades or ends abruptly. Life dies. He recognises that he too will die. His poetry shows that he, like many people, has a desire to fill his days with as much productive living as possible before that time comes. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">To wash the steps with pail and rag
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Was once the beauty Abishag’ [Provide Provide] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘I shall be telling this with a sigh
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Somewhere <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">ages and ages hence’ [Road] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The life from spilling. Then the boy <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">saw all ’ [Out, Out] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Little — less — nothing! — <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">and that ended it. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs’ [Out, Out]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Let them think twice before they <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">use their powers == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">To blot out and drink up and sweep away ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">These flowery waters and these watery flowers’ [Spring Pools]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Assorted characters of <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">death and blight ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘For I have had too much
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Of apple-picking: <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">I am overtired ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘One can see what will trouble
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is’ [Apple Picking] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And half grant what I wish and <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">snatch me away == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Not to return ’ [Birches] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Atones for later disregard
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Or keeps <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">the end from being hard’ [Provide Provide] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">Poetic Techniques
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Frost used literary techniques such as dialogue, first and third person narrative, personal reflection, figurative imagery and language, symbols and personification in his poems. He is a poet with immense variety of tone. He moves from exhilaration to black moods. There is an ironic voice in most of his poems. He used a good deal of laconic understatement. His poetry could be gentle or full of dread. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Sound Effects**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> Consonance is repetition of consonant sounds. Sibilance is repetition of ‘s’ sounds
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> Consonance, Cross Rhyme and Internal Rhyme may incorporate Alliteration and Assonance. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Try to add your own further examples to those below.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">If you refer to these techniques when answering on a poet, state their purpose in re-enforcing meaning or creating the language construct that a poem is. Present them as evidence of the poet’s craft. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The following are four sample analyses that you should try to repeat on other poems:
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The poem **‘After Apple Picking’** contains abundant sound repetition. Consider the verbal music created by the two examples of alliteration [ b and l ], the line rhyme [ in ], the cross-rhyme [ um and om ], the internal rhyme [ load ] and the assonance [ ee and ea] of the following quote. Note also the onomatopoeic effect of ‘rumbling’. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Of l oad on l oad of apples c om ing in’.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Note how 19 different ‘l’ sounds create a consonance in **‘Spring Pools’.** Eleven of the ‘l’ sounds occur in the first four lines. The repetition of this melodious sound provides a sound effect that enhances the beauty of the description of nature. This consonance creates a mellifluous effect. This effect may also be labelled euphonic. Note also the fourteen soft ‘t’ sounds in the first two lines of the poem. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Note the near perfect balance of sounds in both halves of the following line from **‘Spring Pools’**: ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘ These flower y waters and these water y flowers’.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The line is split perfectly by the word ‘and’. The only changes in sound are the reversing of the word order and the switching of the ‘y’ and the ‘s’ endings. The line contains three internal rhymes [ These, flower and water ]. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The poem has many other examples of consonance and musical effects that you can seek out. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘ S w ee t- s cented s tuff when the br ee z e drew acro ss it’.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">This sibilance emphasises the spreading of the scent in the breeze. It creates a musical effect. Note also how the assonance [ ee ] enhances the sensual effect. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Note how verbal music enhances the aural imagery of the following rhyming couplet from **‘A Tuft of Flowers’:** ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And h ear h i s long sc y th e whi s per ing to the gr ound ’.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Consider the verbal music created by two examples of alliteration [ m and h ], the two examples of assonance [ a and a, e and ea ], the line rhyme [ ound ], the two cross-rhymes [ hear and ing ] and the sibilance[ s, sc, th, s ]. Some of these sound effects blend in to each other. Note how ‘hear’ in the second line is part of the alliterating, assonance and cross-rhyme effects. This sibilance is an example of onomatopoeia because this ‘s’ sound repetition reinforces the aural image of the whispering sound of the scythe. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">There are many detailed examples of sound techniques illustrated in the poems on the Ordinary Level English web pages, <span style="color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">[|Out Out,][|The Road Not Taken,][|Mending Wall.] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Rhyme**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Some of Frost’ poems are in blank verse. Some of his poems have a strict rhyming pattern. Some of his poems have variable rhyming without any pattern. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In ‘**Out, Out’ t**here isn’t a regular rhyming scheme. There is a small amount of rhyming. The third and third last lines rhyme with ‘ it’. The word ‘ other’ in line four half rhymes with ‘ ether’ in line twenty-eight. Lines eighteen and twenty end in the same word ‘ hand’. This is an example where rhyming emphasises the word that is central to the narrative of the poem. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Many of the longer narrative poems are written in blank verse paragraphs.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**‘The Tuft of Flowers’** is written in rhyming couplets. This is typical of his early poems when he had a profound respect for traditional poetic practices. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The shorter lyric poems and sonnets on the course have a definite rhyming pattern. For example in **‘Spring Pools’,** the pattern is ‘ aacdcd, eeghgh’. In both stanzas, the first two lines form a couplet, then lines three and five and lines four and six rhyme. This intricate pattern reflects the symmetry between pool and sky that is the subject matter of the poem. The poem reflects nature’s regularity. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Rhythm**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Rhythm is a complex aspect of Frost’s poetry. Mostly, writers of student notes make a brief reference to rhythm and leave it at that. But in a Frost poem, rhythm needs to be explained in detail. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">You’ve got to use your ear to judge the rhythm. So, read the poem aloud.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Frost had a complex attitude to rhythm. He claimed that he wanted to represent the rhythm of ordinary speech in his poems. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">But he was also a conservative. That means that he tried to write poetry according to the rules of the great poets he had read. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In the past, most poets used the rhythm known as iambic pentameter.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The beat of each line is based on a unit of sound known as a foot. The iambic foot is by far the most common type of foot. The iambic foot has two syllables. The second syllable of the pair is the loudest. In other words, it is a stressed syllable. A line of poetry with five of these iambic feet is known as iambic pentameter. ‘Penta’ comes from the Greek word for five. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In traditional poetry, the most popular type of line had ten syllables. Usually such lines were divided into five pair of syllables for the purpose of beat or rhythm. This is the beat that Frost admired and tried to use in his poetry. You can see iambic pentameter in many of Frost’s lines. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Take **‘Mending Wall’** as an example of rhythm in Frost’s poetry. There is a regular rhythm created by the five beats per line. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[Two syllables… Two syllables… Two syllables… Two syllables… Two syllables…]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">This was the most common tempo or rhythm in poetry down through the ages. In this quoted line, there are two syllables per beat. The second syllable of each beat is loud or stressed. This type of rhythm is known as iambic pentameter. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In his early poetry, Frost kept to traditional rules of rhythm.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In his later poetry, he relied more on the rhythm of the voice in normal speech when writing his poetry. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Trust your ear to judge the rhythm.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">To comment on rhythm, quote a typical line and show the rhythm that you hear in the line. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">So, you should read or listen again to **‘Mending Wall’.**
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">As well as the formal five even beats or iambic feet, your ear may hear a more natural rhythm. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[Two syllables…two syllables…four syllables…two syllables]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In this reading of the poem the stressed syllable may be any syllable—just trust your ear: ‘thing…is…love…wall. The voice emphasises the last syllable of each beat] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">This way of reading the line is based on the human voice and ear as it deals with both the sound and meaning of the words. In fact, the human voice increasingly replaced formal poetic meter in Frost’s mature poetry. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">You can find just the same pattern in reading to and listening to the rest of **‘Mending Wall’.** ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘To each…the boulders…that have fallen… to each…’
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[Two syllables…three syllables…four syllables…two syllables, with various syllables stressed—each...bould…fall…each] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In fact, while your trained eye may see the five beat rhythm, your ear is more likely to lead you to the four beat rhythm, especially if you read for meaning. You may also reach this conclusion just by sounding the poem out in your head. Try it. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Overall, Frost aspired towards a natural rhythm in the sounding out of his poems. Thus there are two contrasting rhythms, the silent formal metre and the natural beat of the reading voice. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Tone**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Many of Frost's poems include an element of melancholy or regret. They contain feelings or sadness or longing that reflects the darker side of the poet. Considering the difficult childhood and life that he experienced, it is logical to conclude that poems with these attitudes were an outlet for his darker emotions - mostly of loneliness and loss. **‘Acquainted With the Night’** is a clear example of this tendency. In other poems Frost experiences the exhilaration of epiphany: a moment of deep spiritual insight as in **‘The Tuft of Flowers’.** == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Sombre: ‘I have been one acquainted with the night’ [Acquainted] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Cold and Empty : ‘Little – less – nothing! – and that ended it’. [Out, Out] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Brutal and Insensitive : ‘And they, since they ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs’ [Out, Out]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Contemptuous or Sneering : ‘like an old-stone savage armed’. [Mending Wall] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Sarcastic or Mischievous: ‘My apple trees will never get across ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And eat the cones under his pines’ [Mending Wall]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Rueful or Sorry : ‘I shall be telling this with a sigh ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Somewhere ages and ages hence’ [Road]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Philosophical: ‘I thought of questions that have no reply’ [Tuft] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Delighted and Exhilarated: ‘sheer morning gladness at the brim’ [Tuft] Alienated: ‘I have passed by the watchman on his beat ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain’ [Acquainted]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Terrified: ‘When far away an interrupted cry ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Came over houses from another street’ [Acquainted]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Grieving [Lamenting]:‘Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone’ [Spring] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Frightening and Morbid: ‘Assorted characters of death and blight’ [Design] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Weary : ‘But I am done with apple-picking now’ [Apple Picking] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Bewildered: ‘I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight’ [Apple Picking] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Sensual: ‘Essence of winter sleep is on the night, the scent of apples [A P] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Wonder ; ‘You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen’ [Birches] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Mocking, Casual and Ironic: ‘But I was going to say when Truth broke in ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">with all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm’ [Birches]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Despairing: ‘It's when I'm weary of considerations’ [Birches] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Nostalgic: ‘So was I once myself a swinger of birches [Birches] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Optimistic : ‘And so I dream of going back to be’ [Birches] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Longing: ‘I'd like to get away from earth awhile’ [Birches] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Ironic and Bitter: ‘ The picture pride of Hollywood’ [Provide] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Whimsical : ‘If need be occupy a throne, ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Where nobody can call you crone’ [Provide]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Bleak: ‘No memory of having starred ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Atones for later disregard’ [Provide]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">Urgent : ‘Provide, provide’ ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textsub" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">Imagery ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Many of Frost’s images are descriptive or real images. A detailed analysis of this aspect of Frost’s poetry for three of his poems is available on the Ordinary Level English Page. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘up by roots to bring dark foliage on’ [Spring Pools].
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">This image refers to a process known in your biology textbooks as transpiration. It is a real image from nature. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">However in many of Frost’s poems, some descriptive or real objects from nature may have a symbolic meaning. Thus, the orchard of ‘**Apple Picking’,** the trees in **‘Birches’,** the wall in **‘Mending Wall**’, the butterfly and flowers in ‘**The Tuft of Flowers’** are all real images. But, on a deeper level, they represent or symbolise abstract or spiritual ideas. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In ‘**The Tuft of Flowers’**, the butterfly is a symbol of the poet’s inquisitive and longing soul. The flowers represent natural beauty and human tenderness. The poem has a phrase that acts as a pointer to the deeper level of interpretation: ‘a message from the dawn’. Look out for these pointers when you read poetry. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In ‘Mending Wall’, the yelping dogs and the hunters are real. But the wall exists in two dimensions of meaning. It is a real boundary between two farms, as real as the yelping canines. But the words ‘elves’ and ‘something’ both suggest there may be a mysterious hidden meaning to the wall. The wall, which is restored annually, may signify the artificial codes, superstitions and traditions by which people separate and isolate themselves. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Symbolism:**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**<span class="text" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">‘That would b **e good both going and coming back. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough’ [Apple Picking]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Beside real images, some of which may be symbolic, there are many comparison images in Frost’s poetry. These are known as figurative images and can be separated into a number of categories. Please add your own discovered examples to the sample lists that follow: ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Metaphor:**
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘The <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">witch that came (the withered hag) ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">To wash the steps with pail and rag’ [Provide]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘The buzz-saw <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">snarled …’ [Out, Out] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘A leaping <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">tongue of bloom’ [Tuft] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘And some are <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">loaves and some so nearly <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">balls’ [Mending Wall] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">‘crystal shells shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust’ [Birches] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Conceit**
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[This is an elaborate comparison and metaphor where some concrete object or process is used to illustrate an abstract reality, be it spiritual, emotional or philosophical] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘I'd like to go by climbing a <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">birch tree ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Personification:**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘Stay where <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">you are until our backs are turned!’ [Mending Wall] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘The buzz-saw <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">snarled and rattled in the yard’ [Out, Out] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘As if to prove saws <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">knew what supper meant’ [Out, Out] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Paradox** [apparent contradiction]
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The following image shows how each season is a product of the previous one, and how the approaching season negates the previous one: ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Logic (argument)**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In Frost’s poetry he persuades us rather than argues. Frost uses imagery, symbols and analogy to convey his views. Frost is a narrative poet, and thus his many ideas are conveyed indirectly in most of his poetry. Some lines are argumentative and these help us to decode his images and symbols. ==

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">In addition to various techniques of sound, tone and imagery, there are many examples of different language techniques found in Frost’s poetry. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Pun (wordplay)**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Allusion**
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[Allusion is reference to another work, or imitation of the words of another work. Frost used this device sparingly—he didn’t want to appear too scholarly] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Balance**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Conversational Language**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Poetic Syntax**
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[The word order is altered from the normal to emphasise descriptive details. In his early poetry, Frost did not always use everyday expression and rhythm, unlike in his later work] == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘But as I said it, <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">swift there passed me by == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">On noiseless wing <span class="textitalic" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">a bewildered butterfly’ [Tuft] ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Aphorism**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Form**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Frost used the short traditional forms of lyric, sonnet and narrative. His long narrative poems consist of a single verse paragraph, without formal divisions. Here are some illustrative comments on form in Frost’s poems. ==

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**‘After Apple Picking’** is a free-verse dream poem with philosophical undertones.
==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**‘Mending Wal**l’ demonstrates Frost's ability at lyrical verse, dramatic conversation, and ironic commentary. == ==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333366; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">‘**The Road Not Taken’** and **‘Birches’** exemplify Frost's ability to join the pastoral and philosophical modes in lyrics of unforgettable beauty. ==