ROBERT FROST

Abstract

One often thinks a truth is on the white crest of a high mountain or at the very bottom of the deep ocean. In order to seek after a truth, he thinks that he must be well armed to plunge into the water, or must be an able alpinist. why must people take indefatigable pains to grasp a rare, precious truth before they try to discover the universal truths in themselves and around themselves. One must have seen many humble truths in Frost's New England where mountains are not so high, people are not highbrows, and no deep philosophy seems to exist. Frost's poetry is an expression of rural New England. Frost writes of rural subjects and people, claiming that one must "be versed in country things." Describing the facts of nature and the traits of people north of Boston, he is honest and faithful to reality. He deals with those somewhat somber and serious subjects with his light and casual touch and makes his readers feel a kinship to him and his poetry. The universality and familiarity in his poems have gained him the steady favor of a very large number of readers throughout the world. He achieved a popularity during his life-time which is unusual even to most of the other celebrated poets. "Popularity" is apt to make a poet underestimated by students of literature and "egg-heads." Frost is often criticized for going too far in secular affairs. It is true that he was wooed by many public figures or societies, and the poet himself did not apparently put aside those public callings. But Frost is not the type of person who would compromise with the world for the sake of his popularity. He was rater unconcerned with the public opinions of him. One can easily misunderstand the poet's philosophy of "swinging birches" as a worldly compromise. But I believe Frost's "swinging birches" is a true wisdom the value of which cannot be ignored. Frost's poetry is easy to understand. There is no fascinating charm in his poems--no sparkling glow which catches one's mind at the first glance. Reading Frost's poems one may feel bored with the colorless lines, but a careful reader cannot miss the beauty which Frost kindles among the ordinary things, daily routines, and on the plain hills. Beneath the everyday conversations and common words in Frost's poetry there are the penetrating eyes which reach far into the boundlessness of the universe and the power to elevate the trivial and momentary things. Here is his art and his greatness as an artist. Living in the paradoxical human world and loving ordinary things, Robert Frost builds up a "home" where a Silas can be accepted warmly. Home is not some place we do not know. It is in Frost's optimistic "lover's quarrel." In "The Lesson for Today" the poet writes: And were an epitaph to be my story I'd have a short one ready for my own. I'd have written of me on my stone: I had a lover's quarrel with the world.