Week 10 Blog

ENG 113

Instructor Risch

Comments on Week 10 Poetry

Donna Stevens

March 23, 2011

“Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost

This poem addresses the question of whether the world will end in fire or in ice. The rhyme scheme is ABAA, BCBCB. In line 7, there is an example of an enjambment when line 7 runs over into 8. This makes the reader pause and it causes the words to have more impact than if they were just simply punctuated on the same line. The connotation of the poem is that he would “favor fire” and also that “ice” would “suffice”. I think that he favors fire because of the passion and heartache he has suffered within his marriage. For example, he states “ From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire.” He had a tumultuous marriage and felt his wife was as cold as a “November Guest”. I think that he favored ice because hate is such a hot emotion that ice would be the solution to cool things off and slow the progress of hate. The poem has no apparent listener, but seems that Frost is working out a personal point of view.

“Birches” by Robert Frost

This is a blank verse poem. Like “Fire and Ice”, Frost does not come out and give his opinion on the afterlife. Again, he invites the reader to form his/her own opinion about life on earth and life after death. When Frost writes about “swinging”, the “both going and coming back”, I think he is talking about when he swings away from the earth, that he escapes the cares of this world for a moment. When he must return to earth, he is “weary of considerations” in other words, he is thrown back into the worries of his life. I feel that he uses a “boy” as his subject because children are vulnerable and impressionable. I feel that Frost himself felt vulnerable to the worries in his personal life. I think that in line 27 when he says “one by one he subdued his father’s trees” that he meant that one by one he conquered all his demanding father’s expectations of him until there were none left to conquer. He learned to think before he speaks and be careful with his words and actions in the line “He learned all there was to learn about not launching out too soon” or not jumping out of the swing, and giving up. If he gives up the swing, then he gives up on achieving balance in his life. Like other Frost poems, he gave a negative reference to his overpowering father and to hard lessons learned about how to carry oneself through life.

“After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost

In this poem, Frost again talks about life’s long journey and if in fact it has been a successful one or one filled with regrets. In “After Apple-Picking”, this man looks down in his apple barrel like a man would reflect upon his life. There were times in his life that were “bruised or spiked with stubble” and times that “surely went to the cider-apple heap”. This man reflects on his life of hard work and wonders if his whole life only was meant for the “cider-apple heap” or if his life would mean “thousand thousand fruit to touch”. His life and it’s achievements are up to his discernment as he really has nothing tangible to show for his life. Year after year his hard work is consumed in some way and that is why now he feels “I am done with apple-picking now”. The seasons of his life are over like they are for the apple orchard as the ground is “hoary” or frosty and winter’s “sleep” is coming. The woodchuck even knows the season has ended as he writes that the “woodchuck could say whether it’s like his Long sleep”. The subject in this poem feels death coming on just as his orchard and the woodchuck feels fall approaching.

“Success is counted sweetest” by Emily Dickenson

This poem basically describes the basic human desire to want what we do not have. It is like the generally known truth that the most generous human beings are those who do not have it to give. The reason needy people are so generous is because they know what it is to stand in need of something. In this poem, Dickenson describes how success is really not something treasured by successful people. It is only those who strive to fulfill their definition of success and never really achieve this who cherish the “nectar” of success. In the fourth line, “Requires the sorest need” reiterates the fact that in order to cherish success, one must suffer sorely. In the second quatrain, she describes soldier’s families who died and how not one is lacking of a definition of success because it came so hard earned. The “purple Host” is the purple heart and “Host” is the Heavenly Father. The words “who took the Flag today” mean that they were presented the Flag of the United States of America at the funeral. The reason Victory is capitalized is out of honor and reverence for the deceased. In the last quatrain, she tells about the dying soldier who was “defeated-dying” and “on whose forbidden ear” this is the enemy’s ear who heard his fellow soldiers “triumph burst agonized and clear”. This means that success was found on both sides of the war. The soldier died, his life was honored. His family knew what sacrifice and a successful honorable fight their loved one had put forth. The enemy who was in fact victorious felt a lesser version of success because it had not been earned with his life. He could hear his company cheer but it hardly seemed to equal the sacrifice of an honorable, successful fight.

“Water, is taught by thirst” by Emily Dickenson

This poem is a sestet. It follows a rhyme scheme of ABC/DDC. This poem tells about how circumstances in our lives teach lessons. We are taught by our experiences. The “Birds” are taught to hunt and gather their food before winter because “snow” has taught them that it will come to cover up their food if they do not prepare properly. We are taught how to love by the pain and agony of losing a loved one. The “Memorial Mold” represents memorials like the Vietnam and other war memorials. Our country is taught to love one another by the memorials that stand in honor of our veterans. Like the Memorial mold, we are taught peace from war. This poem is a study in how the contrasting emotions and situations of life work to mature us and teach us all valuable lessons. When we are in the “throe” or the most tender spot of pain our lives, we are forced to move on. This can be figuratively or physically. We can be forced to move through pain in our lives when we lose a loved one but we still have little ones in our lives we are responsible for that we must still carry on day to day for. We can be forced physically to move through pain when we must relocate to a new home because of the devastation of our former one. The “oceans passed” have taught the land how to shape itself because the water indeed holds the power over the land. Lastly, in the title, “water is taught by thirst” figuratively we only see what we need when we are brought face to face with our afflictions.