Even though Robert Frost is one of many authors whose work is linked with nature and landscape, he is no basic poet. One of Robert Frost’s most well-known poems, “Birches,” was published in 1916, and before this time, Frost made the theme of most of his poems focus on beautiful landscapes and the appreciation of nature. However, during this same time, Frost was in the middle of one of the most controversial times in history; World War I. This factor caused Frost to introduce the comparison between adulthood experiences with the carefree amusement of adolescence. Frost is able to connect the state of the birches to the childhood he wishes he could return to. Through the use of keywords, punctuation, and strong illusion, Frost is able to convey his fantasy of a false reality to his readers.
By introducing symbolic imagery, Frost is able to drag his readers into this fake reality. The intention of the poem is to submerge the reader into this vision in which he wishes to alienate into the innocence of a child. Within the first few lines Frost is able to create separation with his use of symbolic allusion. As he walks through the forest, he writes, “When I see birches bend to left and right / Across the lines of straighter darker trees…” (ll. 1-2). Even so, it is interesting how Frost makes the comparison of the darker trees with the birches. This is possible because, like the birches with their white trunks standing out among the other darker trees, he feels like he is standing out. This is a foreshadowing contribution to the end of the poem in which he describes his desire to leave society.
However, Frost’s purpose of these introductory lines is to introduce the reader into his surroundings through the use of illusion in order to get the reader into the context of his vision. Even so, this is not the only way he gets the reader into his vision. “They click upon themselves / as the breeze rises, and turn many-colored / As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.” (ll. 7-9).
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In other words, it is in these sentences that Frost uses strong illusions in order to get his readers into the poem’s setting, so that his readers can understand the meaning of his false reality later in the poem. Not only does the sight of bending branches look alluring, but the little wind that comes makes the ice-covered branches hit against each other, causing clicking sounds; involving a sense besides sight. The bumping action cracks the ice, but not all the way. At the same time, he describes the ice on the trees as a ‘craze,’ which is a way many authors use to describe the cracks. When talking about the “enamel,” he refers to the ice coating on the bark of the tree that is cracking into multiple patterns because of the weight of the snow and the constant swinging of the trees in the breeze. This relates back to the concept that the poet uses senses in his illusion in order to create a stronger connection with the readers and his poem.
Once Frost has introduced us to the reality of his vision, he wants to transition into his false reality. He executes this through the clever use of punctuation in which he breaks facts into a false reality. “What poets call a caesura, a pause, occurs in line 5 with the period in the middle of the line… Frost, in effect, will not let natural science have the last word. Instead, after stating the natural fact of the ice storm, he appeals directly to his readers: ‘you must have seen them.’ Moreover, it is as if Frost were asking his readers to confirm his own sense that bent trees are a strange and even exciting phenomenon–so strange that they are worthy of metaphors” (Barron). The caesura is crucial because it stops him from listing fact midway through the line.
Why would Frost do this? Well, it is because he wants to change the focus of the poem from the condition of the birches to the reason of why the birches are bending in his perspective. This transition from fact to fiction is crucial, and this break in the line is like a break from reality. This is the purpose of his poem; to have a break from his obligations and constraints, so that he can come into nature seeking peace. This punctuation mark in the middle of the sentence is what Frost uses to transition into the illusion of the trees being bent by boys climbing and enjoying nature with no worries.
Transitioning into the false reality the poet wishes was an actuality; he wants the readers to understand that most of the poem from the caesura will be an alluring fantasy. Interestingly, he uses word choice in order to emit this fantasy to the audience. “But I was going to say when Truth broke in / With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm / I should prefer to have some boy bend them” (ll. 21-23). Most of the time when an author writes “truth,” there is a significant reason for it. Furthermore, it is crucial to acknowledge that Frost inserted “Truth” with a capital “T” with a purpose. “Truth with a capital ‘T’ is abstraction personified, a figurative value. She, a trusted absolute, it seems, and not the poet interrupts with these ‘facts,’ these ‘crystal shells,’ and ‘the inner dome of heaven.’
By implication, the poet prefers an untruth which does not deal in facts. His fancy, though, is down to earth” (Rotella). After the caesura, the poet wants the readers to understand that he indelibly wants this fictional reality. With this word choice, the poem keeps progressing into the acknowledgment that the poem itself is an allusion he would wish to live in. He chooses the fiction over the “Truth,” because he himself wants to go into his own vision and get away from earth awhile, which leads to him continuing his journey through the woods, and his symbolic imagery to become more forceful.
Symbolic imagery is what ties the poem up with the theme of a false reality with nature. The poet starts describing life as “pathless woods” because if follows the idea that Frost is trying to use the landscape around him as a symbol for his vision. The use of “pathless woods” proceeds to help the reader comprehend that the woods are like life. Frost compares the journey of life to the woods that have no path, to a place where there are no roads, and to a place with no way of direction. He continues explaining that it is almost impossible for someone in that certain situation to be hurt, because there will be pain. “Frost explains his sense of getting older, of traveling on life’s journey through this metaphor of the woods. And by comparing life to the woods, and adulthood to a journey through it, he tells his readers that young people are far happier than adults since they do not have to go anywhere.
In other words, the trees must submit to the boy; they must bend to his will. Older people, says Frost, are not so fortunate; they must submit to nature. They walk with ‘one eye weeping’” (Smith). Here, the reader comes to the climax of the poem in which he realizes that Frost, all along, has wanted to be the boy in the tree with no worries, no troubles, and no injuries. Nevertheless, it is the imagery of the pathless woods that Frost uses to recount the idea that kids have not had to endure the troubles of being adults. It is after the imagery that Frost chooses to state, “I’d like to get away from earth awhile / And then come back to it and begin over.” (ll. 57-58). He says this as if his true intention is to renew himself as a child
Frost, with the help of the Birch tree, goes into a utopian dream in which he is free of adulthood as a boy. This illusion of being a boy makes him feel like life’s journey is not a trap, because he can always dream and go into an alienated trance.
References
- Birches by Robert Frost – Poetry Foundation
- Allusion – Poetry Foundation Glossary
- Robert Frost’s “Birches” – Academy of American Poets
- Nature Imagery in the Works of Robert Frost – Georgia Tech Library
- Comparative Analysis of “Birches” and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost – Grand Valley State University McNair Scholars Journal
