Robert Frost as a Poet of Nature
Robert Frost depicts the bright and the dark aspects, the benevolent and the hostile forces of Nature in his poems on realistic terms. Critics have a difference of opinion over his designation of a poet of Nature. Alvarez says that: “Frost is not a Nature poet”.
One point of
view on which almost all the critics agree is Frost’s minute observation and
accurate description of the different aspects of nature in his poems. Schneider
says: “The descriptive power of Mr. Frost is to me the most wonderful thing in
his poetry. A snowfall, a spring thaw, a bending tree, a valley mist, a brook, these
are brought into the experience of the reader”.
Frost is primarily a realist who abstruse the things around him and in nature as they are and describes them as such. That is why nature changes its character from poem to poem in his poetry.
In “Two Tramps
in Mud Time”, if on the one hand, he shows New England poised between cold and
warmth, winter and spring, on the other hand, he does not miss to show the
turmoil and storm brewing under the apparently beautiful calm of nature.
Therefore, he interrupts his genial description of the April weather to warm:
“Be glad of water, but don’t forget
The lurking frost in the earth beneath
That will steal firth after the sun is set
And snow on the water its crystal teeth.”
Frost pastoral
element is dominant in Frost’s poetry. That is why he is considered as a poet
of pastures and plains, mountains and rivers, woods and gardens, groves and
bowers, fruits and flowers, seeds and birds as he was a farmer. Hence, nature
was his constant companion. But what is noticeable in his poetry is that even
in the poems such as “Birches”, “After Apple Picking”, “An Old Man’s Winter
Night” and “Mending Wall” it is the human factor which is predominant and
nature is an integral part of the themes of the poems. For worries and disappointments
in life make life miserable but the pet still clings to it because he loves the
earth.
Frost unlike
Wordsworth is not a nature mystic. He does not see any affinity between nature
and man nor does he find any spirit or power pervading it. Nor does he find any
healing power in it which can cure the ills of society and man. For him nature
is alien to man.
Frost’s attitude
to nature reflects the spirit of the present age whose attitude to nature, like
all other things, is scientific and realistic. That is why he has not
formulated any philosophy about nature. Frost’s poems describe simply his daily
and common experience.
Thus, the
panorama of nature presented in Frost’s poems not only offers a feast of beauty
to the view of the reader but also provides him awareness of life. In the light
of these views Frost may safely be considered as a poet who gave an entirely
new concept of nature and is one of the great poets of nature.
Thq fr this
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