Abstract: Robert Frost (1874-1963), one of the most revered, honored and popular American poets of 20th century, is well known for his peculiar poetry. Creation in convention is the fundamental feature of his poetry, which means his poetry is traditional in general, but creative both in content and style. Frost is skilled at arranging form and rhythm and making good u of some rhetorical devices, such as metaphor, symbol and exaggeration. His poetry is on the theme of conflicts among human, nature and society and people‟s attitudes toward them. His meditative poetry, which aims to illustrate a certain moral or intellectual problem by means of a central (and often simple) event or image, just belongs to this kind. This paper aims to analyze the relationship among human, nature and society to explain his thoughts by analyzing his blank ver “Birches” from the angle of his biography, his meditative poetry, features of his meditative poetry,critical reviews on “Birches”, and detailed analysis of “Birches”.
Key Words:Meditative Poetry；conflicts among human，nature and society；analysis；“Birches”
On Meditative Poems of Robert Frost
—Reviews On Robert Frost’s “Birches”
罗伯特佛罗斯特诗歌研究
罗伯特佛罗斯特《白桦树》回顾
1. Introduction: Biography and Meditative Poetry of Robert Frost
Robert Frost (1874—1963), born in San Francisco, was among the most respectable of American writers. Just as Robert Graves‟ obrvation: “Frost was the first American who could be honestly reckoned a master-poet by world standards……Frost won the title fairly, not by turning his back on ancient European tradition, nor by imitating its success, but by developing it in a way that at last matches the American climate and the American language.”
Frost was well—k nown over the world as a famous “farm poet” of New England, who succeeded in exploring complex attitudes about modern society by means of the description of beauty and simplicity of country life. Frost affirmed the relationship of his poetry to a fundamental pastoral idea with such statement :“Poetry is more often of the country than the city……poetry is very, very rural-rustic .‟‟
Meditative poetry, which refers to the u of description of scene or event to symbolize feeling and reveal reason, may be well taken as a vivid echo of Frost as a “Farm Po et ‟‟. Readers may get a fresh impression of Frost who often ts beautiful natural scenes of New England farm as background, such as river, grassland, field, and so on. In his meditative poetry, characters and situati
ons rve to illustrate an intellectual idea. He describes natural scenes with vivid imagery, admires ordinary rural activities and examines the problems of modern society. Pointing out that humanity must constantly struggle against confusions and temptations, Frost states that poetry is just a “momentary stay against confusion.‟‟ One may get a profound understanding toward his belief and his meditative poetry on the basis of analyzing his blank ver“Birches”.
2. Features of Robert Frost’s Meditative Poetry
As a pastoral poet, Frost‟s poetry is full of images of natural scenes and its language is quite brief and plain. Frost aims to transfer profound meaning by means of common scenes. His poetry enjoys its own specialties. Creation in convention is the fundamental feature of his poetry, which means Frost is good at revealing modern theme by means of conventional materials and approaches of poetry. In addition, Frost is good at using some rhetorical approaches, such as metaphor, symbol, and so on. Furthermore, Frost is particularly noted for his mastery of form and rhythm. Frost‟s poetry generally can be classified into four types, which share their own
features respectively—Dramatic Poetry, Satiral Poetry, Philosophical Poetry and Meditative Poetry, of which the last is the subject of this paper.
Meditative Poetry refers to the u of description of scene or event to symbolize feeling and reveal reason. It is typical of using concrete object to express abstract idea with optimistic tone. Meditative poetry aims to illustrate a certain moral or intellectual problem by means of a certain event or image. The blank ver “Birches”just belongs to this type. The blank ver ud in this mode is more measured, improved, and harmonious. The subject of the poem is always obrvant, immediate and local. The meditations of Frost always circle around a fictional and usually contemporary speaker or scene. In his meditative mode Frost is attempting with all his escapes and blind ways to answer a few fundamental questions.
营销的目的
3. Critical Reviews on Robert Frost’s “Birches”
Blank ver “Birches”is a famous reprentative of Frost‟s meditative poetry, which ts up a combination of thoughts from fragments of memory and imagination. Its vividness and bittersweet meditation help make it one of Frost‟s most popular poems. The poem moves back and forth between two visual perspectives: birch trees are bent by boy‟s playful swinging and by ice storms, the two perspectives being somewhat puzzling. Here are some reviews on this poem propod by veral famous critics.
3.1 Review on the precious balance between transcendental imagination and common n reality
Frank Lentricchia stated: “…Birches‟begins by evoking its core image against the background of a darkly wooden landscape.”He examines the precious balance resto red b etween the claims o f co mmo n n reality and id eality.
George F.Bagby said: “The poem is t at that time of the natural year which most suggests imaginative exciting: the spring time in the imagination‟s life when it begins to arou itlf from winter lethargy.”He argues that the birches are permanently “bowed”by the ice storm, but remain suggestive of aspiration and he emphasizes a lot on the balance of human aspiration and earthly reality.
Mordecai Marcus examines Frost‟s pursuit of the ideal life rather than a yielding to death and the continual balance between reality and ideality.
3.2 Review on Frost’s belief that Earth is the right place for love
George Montiero said: “M an‟s acts upon nature have their own meaning and beauty, and nature‟s beauty is somehow enhanced when man has worked an effect upon nature.” He thinks that Earth is the right place for love.
Jeffrey Meyers stated: “…Birches‟ connects poetic aspiration and physical love.”He believes that Earth, not Heaven, is the right place for love. Becau love should be physical and examined against the realities of life.
Floyd C.Watkins summarized: “ …Toward Heaven‟, but never to, never all the way. Frost considers a moment when the soul may become completely absorbed into a union with perfection. But he is earth bound, limited and afraid. He would like to
get away from earth for a while than he thinks of “fate”-rather than God.” He insists on the belief: “Earth is the right place for love.”
3.3 Review on Frost’s poetic technique of knowing how to u metaphor is analogous to knowing how to ride birches
Guy Rotella stated: “One of Frost‟s comments comes to mind: the aim of metaphor is …to revive you to your ideas of free will.‟He thinks that the poems‟imagination with metaphors which aim to reveal events restores free will without covering the truth, and by using metaphors which reveal fact and dream, the poet is no longer beaten back and he recovers the freedom of the boy swinging the birches.
3.4 Review on the theme of sweetness of solitude and isolation
Patricia Wallance said: “What are sometimes felt as limits are not barrier at all and Frost‟s intelligence is always part of feelings in his best poems”He thinks that “Birches”fills us with the recognizable delight of a world lived only by the lf, a world made by the lf, at the same time that it acknowledges the limits and allurement of that satisfaction.
4. Detailed Analysis of Frost’s “Birches”
qq邮箱地址Blank ver “Birches” is one typical example of Frost‟s meditative poetry, which reveals the commonality of Frost‟s poem —a poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
4.1 Analysis of Content
This poem starts from the fantastic description of the effect ice storms have on birches and ends in the reasonable proverb that we may have dreams and imaginations, but have to come back to reality. Seeing the birches, the poet recalls his happy childhood and feels weary of hard real life, and then he falls into deep thought.
This poem can be classified into three parts as follows:
分离定律的实质
Part 1 (line 1-20) The picture of birch trees bent by ice storms.“Birches”begins by evoking its core image against the background of a darkly wooden landscape (line 1-5):
生入玉门关The easily changed quality of the birch tree catches the poet‟s attention and arous his meditation. Perhaps young boys don‟t bend birches, but they do swing them and thus bend them for a short time. “The birch tree across the lines of straighter darker trees” subtly introduces the theme of imagination and will against darker trees. “Straigh ter, darker trees” stand for the freedom out of human control, and “birch tree”stands for the order and control missing from ordinary experience. However, the quality of the birches is not complete and the poet admits this fact that the ultimate shape of mature birch trees is the effect of objective natural force (ice storm), not human activity.
Following stanza1, then almost a third of the poem describes how ice storms bend the trees permanently, unlike the action of boys (line 6-13):
怎样给u盘加密The poet is attracted by the scene of lovely ice covering on the birch trees, not only the scene itlf interests the poet but the strange transformation from ideality to
reality arous his imagination: “you‟d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.”Certainly there is no doubt that the belief involved here that the inner dome has been smashed clearly pleas the spe
aker, and the poet ems not to have restricted himlf but to have been free. In this stanza, “shed crystal ice shells” suggests the turning of the ideal into everyday reality.
In birches, Frost doesn‟t emphasize the natural disaster but his intelligence as a poet (line 14-20):
This scene combines images of beauty and distortion. The trees bowed to the level of the bracken suggest pain, which is immediately highlighted by the strange image of girls leaning their hair toward the sun. For Frost, the simile is the perfect figure of comparison, through which a kind of virtue emerges: for a brief moment the poet has gone beyond the reality and allowed the fictional world to be filled with imagination. It is at such moment in Frost‟s work that the strategies and motives of his poetry are revealed. In Frost‟s playful mode, he is willfully eking to explore his imagination.
Part2 (line 21-40) Fictive vision of boy’s swinging birches. (line 21-27):
支气管炎忌口
The cleverness in Frost‟s strategy now emerges. While claiming to have paid respect to the strict standards of transcendental truth in his turning to the ice-loaded branches, what he has actually done is to change the natural scenes, which he has en into the language of fictions. When he turns to the desired vision of the young boy swinging birches, he is actually turning from one kind of fiction to another kind of the human will riding over a easily influenced external world. That the poet
would prefer to have some boy bend the birches becomes a symbol for controlled experience, as contrasted with the destruction of ice storms. He emphasizes much the theme of the imaginative man who, esntially alone in the world, either makes it or doesn‟t on the strength of his creative resources. Patricia Wallance said: “But when we are weary of such considerations, Frost offers us poems written in the spirit of solitude, with all of her delights. Therefore, the popularity of “Birches” isn‟t at all accidental to Frost‟s central concerns. “Birches”truly is reprentative of Frost, but in it privacy is his choice, and the sweetness of the poem is genuine, the sweetness of solitude. Becau “Frost‟s intelligence is always part of feeling in his best poems.”
And then the poet indulges into the full desired vision of the boy‟s swinging birches in the poem‟s opening lines (line 28-40):
Here the poem shifts into a generalized description to account for why the boy is so charming. He never express his feelings, either joy, achievement, or adventure. At the same time, something holds us back and makes us adhere to a fact of the boy‟s completeness and purpo in his sort. An air of devotion, purpo, and fulfillment wanders about “one by one”, “over and over again”, “not one ……not one”. That he has power, he subdues and conquers evoke the mastery and freedom of one who could know “all there is”about life. “He learned all there was/To learn about not launching out too
洗衣机质量排行榜soon” tells us that the swinger of birches, boy or poet, must know powers and the strength of the trees and the strength of metaphor.
论文引用的格式Part3 (line 41-59) Fall into meditation.
One figure ems to imply another——he image the farm young boy swinging
