Introduction
The poetic legacy of Robert Frost, as one of the foremost American poets of the 20th century, is rich and imbued with images and vivid stories. As an example, his poem “Birches” can be analyzed as a work that captivates the reader with its philosophical ideas about eternity and love. The ability to describe nature with the power that is subject to Frost makes the poet a great master of the artistic word and allows asserting about his rich inner world. The purpose of this work is to analyze “Birches” from the standpoint of the key message that the poet puts into the content. The poem in question gives an impetus to the philosophical reflection on the power of love and individual experiences to understand why the impressions of the past shape the personality and determine one’s worldview characteristics.
Main Ideas of the Poem
The analysis of the poem in question allows highlighting the main motives that explain Frost’s desire to describe personal experiences and thoughts about the power of love and its influence on life. The style he adheres to gives him an opportunity to express the ideas comprehensively. Firstly, according to Gale (2016), the blank verse principle is a poetic form that simplifies storytelling and contributes to conveying thoughts without an emphasis on rhyme. Such a tool helps Frost concentrate on the essence of the poem. Secondly, the method of avoiding reality, which reinforces the philosophical implication, makes it possible to create the illusion of spatial reasoning when the poet covers not only the current moment but also other temporal dimensions. In “Birches,” Frost (1969) writes as follows: “You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.” This stanza invites the reader to open wider boundaries of reality and draws him into reasoning both in the context of earthly life and beyond it. Gale (2017) notes that such an approach is a symbolic tool for expanding the scope of consciousness. As a result, the poet embraces different dimensions for his philosophical analysis.
The theme of love touched upon in the poem is the leitmotif, despite the fact that its direct mention is at the end of the poem. According to Frost (1969), “Earth’s the right place for love,” and this thesis reveals the context of the events described. As Parini (2015) states, all of Frost’s works may be described as attempts to comprehend love and help people not to lose it in the challenging world. Not a single person who has experienced this great feeling can deny its power. Therefore, the poet insists that, although “life is too much like a pathless wood,” the connection with the past and experienced feelings should not be lost (Frost 1969). The temporal dimensions presented in the poem, particularly childhood and adulthood, are intertwined, which creates a unity of images and the inseparability of different periods from each other. This approach to assessing human nature allows the poet to emphasize that life is not long and carefree. Challenges that a person faces on one’s way can weaken or upset. However, the power of love that everyone is able to experience can soothe and empower.
The descriptions of birches with their ice-covered branches are the personification of human maturation. Frost (1969) writes as follows: “They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load.” This image of trees that lean to the ground and freeze under the influence of external forces is comparable to human feelings that harden over time due to the difficulties and anxieties of real life. However, as Sharhan (2017) notes, the key idea is not why these trees tend to the ground but how one can revive them and shake off the ice. The poet argues that while returning to his childhood, he could swing birches and experience the solemn feelings of freedom and lightness (Frost 1969). In real life, the image of trees describes people who, as they get older, lose their carelessness and open love and turn to stone in difficult living conditions. However, no one should forget that the true power of love can melt any ice and revive a person’s essence in the same way as a child swinging on a birch does. Thus, references to nature are the tools of comparison that Frost utilizes successfully.
Life experience seen as one of the drivers of human feelings is also involved as an important element that determines the degree of love that an individual can feel. The poet himself states that his riding on birches evokes only positive emotions, and he dreams of repeating this experience: “It’s when I’m weary of considerations” (Frost 1969). He realizes that while returning to childhood and abstracting from daily routine and worries, a person can control one’s destiny and experience the same vivid feelings as before. Love, as one of the strongest manifestations of spiritual nature, can sparkle with new colors if a person allows oneself to forget about adulthood as a restriction and perceive the world positively and gaily. Despite the fact that, as Parini (2015) remarks, Frost grew up in a materially-minded family with a serious father, the poet has managed to retain the memories of the most vivid moments of his childhood. This experience conveys the main message of “Birches,” which is the importance of remembering how love can inspire a person and break the ice in the heart due to the awakening of deep feelings.
Importance of the Poet’s Claims
The importance of Frost’s ideas expressed in “Birches” is justified by the shift of social interests and values in favor of materiality and financial well-being. Love, as one of the strongest feelings, began to lose its significance under the influence of selfish goals that drive the actions of modern people. Today, when humanity has achieved great results in the development of the technological industry, the capitalist form of consciousness dominates over the ethical one. In such conditions, love recedes into the background and gives way to convenience and profit. This, in turn, creates obstacles to normal human interaction based on adherence to the principles of morality. Moreover, constant tension felt in the endless pursuit of well-being complicates life and leaves an imprint on the way of thinking, which transforms and becomes rational but not creative. All these factors hinder what Frost discusses, in particular, the ability to enjoy the pleasure that is available to everyone. Therefore, the value of the poem’s central idea can be explained from the perspective of its potentially positive influence on the way of thinking to release one’s consciousness from unnecessary worries and concerns.
The ability to understand how past experiences shape the human personality and define the boundaries of consciousness is valuable in view of an opportunity to draw the necessary conclusions and change the worldview. According to Sharhan (2017), closeness to nature is a factor that drives experience and determines how the environment influences consciousness. Although Parini (2015, 69) remarks that “one must be careful when using poems, which are constructs of the imagination,” Frost’s images convey the essence of his ideas explicitly. In pursuit of happiness, a person forgets about one’s past and carelessness, which, in turn, allowed expanding the boundaries of morality and ethics. Today, people tend to be guided by rational judgments, which can be effective and reasonable. Nevertheless, despite the existing bias in values, a personal background is essential for understanding what emotions simple and understandable feelings evoke. Love, despite the complexity of its manifestations, is one of the most vivid markers that reflect emotional moods. Thus, the discussion of the topic of experience and its role in human life is a useful incentive to reduce the negative impact of current challenges and concerns on the worldview.
Conclusion
Robert Frost’s poem “Birches” is filled with philosophical discourse about the power of love and the importance of past experience as a stimulus that determines the attitude towards the world. The evaluation of this work allows highlighting the main approaches used by the poet, in particular, the blank verse method to focus on the poem’s content and the personification of images. Birches that are compared to human lives help reveal the key point: as they grow up, people forget about the joy of life and vivid feelings, for instance, love. The importance of understanding these aspects is explained by the shift in values in favor of material goods and an opportunity to find peace of mind due to the assessment of life experience.
References
Frost, Robert. 1969. “Birches.” Poetry Foundation. Web.
Gale. 2016. A Study Guide for Robert Frost’s “Birches.” Farmington Hills: Cengage Learning.
Parini, Jay. 2015. Robert Frost: A life. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Sharhan, Ala H. 2017. “Accessing Pastoral Ideologies in R. Frost’s ‘Birches’ via Lexical Tools in Terms of Galperin’s Classification: A Stylistic Study.” Journal of Basra Researches for Human Sciences 42 (4): 372-385.