Robert Frost and his literary legacy

Frost

Robert Frost, born in San Francisco in 1874, has been called one of the finest New England poets of the 20th century. Born to a journalist father who died when Frost was just eleven, and a Scottish mother who worked as a schoolteacher, Frost was destined to become a writer and scholar. His poetry, often first regarded as nature poetry, was in fact often a deep reflection of the human condition, and the tragedy surrounding Frost's life. His wife and four of his six children would perish by 1920, and Frost was often plagued with depression (Poirier, 1995). Through the examination of his poetry, particularly "Nothing Gold Can Stay," and "Fire and Ice," it is clear that Frost's poetry, while certainly written using nature as metaphor, was actually an examination of the trials of the human condition.

Nothing Gold Can Stay," originally published in Frost's 1923 book New Hampshire, begins seemingly as yet another nature poem. "Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold" at first glance is a paradox in its self, in that green becomes gold. However, when you consider that Front, by this time, has already lost two children, the poem becomes much more about the precious gift of the first child. "Gold," when taken literally in the piece is simply a color, but is in reality a reference to the highly valued. The piece continues this idea of birth, mixed with loss, in the line "Her early leaf's a flower, but only so an hour." Again, Frost signifies beauty, but notes the impeding destruction of that beauty. "Then leaf subsides to leaf" implies that the leaf, or child, goes back to being what it was intended to be, rather than a precious gift. Front implies the destruction of the valued "gold" in this line. "So Eden sank to grief" furthers this idea of human loss and suffering. "So dawn goes down today" represents the ending of something precious, and in light of the previous lines, indicates the death and loss of a value. Finally, Front ends with "Nothing gold can stay," which can be seen to represent the true nature of that which is valued; that in the end, it will be lost to death or misfortune.

Frost's piece "Fire and Ice" is also rich with metaphors about the human condition. Frost begins his piece with "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice." Again at first glance, frost appears to be discussing the end of the world. However, his next line "From what I've tasted of desire, I'll hold with those who favor fire." Frost appears to be discussing the end of the human soul in terms of human reasoning, in that he is choosing fire, representing the desire of mankind, which can certainly be the cause behind the destruction of one's soul. His next stanza, "But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to know that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice," also shows this representation of the human emotion as being the cause for ending. He relates ice to hate, representing man's ability to end all caring for one another through hatred, which could destroy a human soul. In total, Frost appears to be discussing the concept that desire by its self is enough to destroy, but also, that desire leads to hatred, which is an equally powerful destructive force for the human soul.