So like many Americans, I am one of those people who don't even truly read poetry but enjoy a good Frost poem. Yes, I enjoy the good classic of "Road Not Taken," and gain inspiration from it. However, even though this particular poem is usually the one that comes to mind when most people think of the great poet Robert Frost, I believe he has more to say to us through his many poems. What I love about his poetry is that I don't feel that it takes someone with some kind of Ph. D. in the analysis of literature (which probably doesn't even exist) to figure out some of what he is trying to get across to his readers. Two of his poems that I will be focusing on are "Birches" and "Mending Wall."
So we'll begin with "Birches." I have to begin by confessing that no I am not a specialist in the names of trees to before I even started reading this poem i looked up "birch" into the trusty online dictionary Webster dictionary (thank you Merriam!) Which I thought the definition was interesting and pertinent to the content of the poem itself. Briefly described, a birch is a type of tree that is fast growing and generally peels away its bark. Which a lot of what I think this poem is talking about is growing up and kind of losing the our innocence or who we used to be as children, but still being the same person inside. Frost paints this lovely mental picture of a young boy swinging on these birches and actually conquering them. He says in line 32 "And not one but hung limp, not one was left/ For him to conquer." This young boy is having a marvelous time playing on these trees and conquering them one by one as he grows older. But the speaker of this poem is an entirely separate entity. He is watching the young boy and reminiscing on the days when, "So was I once myself a swinger of birches" (ll. 43). Frost says stuff like the tree "shed crystal shells" (ll. 10) which I believe this is a maturation process. The poem ends with the speaker saying, "I'd like to getget away from earth a while/ And then come back to it and gein over" (ll. 49-50). What I think Frost is saying here is that sometimes as adults or when people get older they sometimes want an escape, a thought of utopia if you will, or even just a nice memory to return to. When life presents tough times even to myself, and I'm only eighteen, sometimes I like to take a deep breath, remember a good memory, like being in a musical, or some crazy memory with friends in high school before I return to life's daily stresses. Frost emphasizes how it's nice to have something to look back on, something to remember and keep us sane during our chaotic lifestyles.
"Mending Wall," by Frost seems to have a slightly different tone throughout it... and I'm not sure if I got the entire meaning of this...but here's my whack at it. The wall seems to be symbolic of something that is holding us back as individuals. The poem starts off with, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," which I know is significant because he adds the same line again further down in the poem...but exactly what it means, I'm not entirely sure. I think the speaker of this poem doesn't necessarily like having this wall because he says in line 33, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out,/ And whom I was like to give offense." The speaker is curious about what is out there but the neighbor just says, "Good fences make good neighbors." This is where I begin to question, why are people so guarded? Is everything in society so private that it keeps us from experiencing everything life has to offer?? These neighbors go out in the spring to make repair to the gaps that have occurred in the wall, but what would happen if they left them there? Adventure. New experiences. Change. Which brings up a good point how change is stressful. People like what' they're used to...which is why any transition (like my recent transition to college) is difficult. People keep to what they're used to, but maybe there's something better on the other side. We just need to be willing to break down that wall.
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