Analysis of Robert Frost’s Poems

Discuss how both poems represent the relationship between human beings and natural beauty. Robert Lee Frost was an American poet who lived between 1874 and 1963. His poetic works were first published in England and later in America. His poems mostly used rural setting to address philosophical and social issues affecting man. He used simple language and real objects to describe his works.  The poems “Stopping by woods on a snowy evening”and “Unharvested”are some of his collections. In the two poems, Frost expresses his thoughts about nature and humanity in two different situations but with almost similar effect. This paper will explain how these two poems represent relationships between human beings and nature.

The speaker in the poem “Stopping by woods on a snowy evening”is with a horse on a lonely wood away from any inhabitants, and he says that the owner of the wood is in the village. The season is winter since there is snow on the woods and the water in the lake is frozen. The speaker stops to reflect on the beauty of nature before him. He is drawn by the “lovely, dark, deep”nature of the woods (Frost and Susan 2). Despite the beauty before him, he remembers that he has miles to go before sleeping, which infers that he has a responsibility to attend to. Frost brings to the reader’s attention the aspect of reconnecting with nature. The importance of taking a break from human hustles is highlighted in the poem.

Frost uses the horse which seems to wonder why they have made a stop in a place with no farmhouse. The horse is impatient and would like to continue with the journey, but the narrator stops to watch the tranquillity in the woods (Frost and Susan 2). The scenario relates to how often humans live without taking keen interests in the little things around them. The narrator stops his journey to enjoy nature.

The poem “Unharvested” by Robert Frost seems to have been written during fall because of the presence of untouched ripe apples on the ground. The speaker admires nature when he appreciates the ”scent of ripeness from over a wall” that has made him stop (Murphy 34). He further says that apples or something should be forgotten and left so that their sweet smell would continue to be felt. Frost appreciates the value of the unharvested apple because of the beauty it brings. It also shows that something unordinary has happened because the fruits are intact.

The poet brings out human nature of thinking that something not harvested is wasted. Some people believe that deadfall is sad because it shows that people who planted the trees are gone, and the tree remains a waste. Frost uses the poem to explain that deadfall is not bad because if all is harvested, then air would lose its sweetness. The poem also addresses human greed of acquiring as much as he can. Frost reminds us that sometimes it is important to leave things unharvested in our lives since nature has so much that we cannot always harvest everything. Additionally, Frost depicts that sometimes it is good to take a break from daily routine to enjoy nature and smell scents when he says ”And come to leave the routine road” (Murphy 35).

The two poems by Frost clearly show the poet’s nature of using simple language to address issues affecting humans daily. There is similarity when the two poems remind humans to take a break from daily struggles to enjoy nature. The poems show the relationship between human beings and nature in different ways.

Works Cited

Frost, Robert, and Susan Jeffers. Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. New York: Dutton, 1978.

Murphy, Timothy. ”Unharvested [Poem].“The Sewanee Review 110.1 (2002): 34-35.