Understanding the Landscape

People’s Projection of Thoughts and Emotions

People project their thoughts in various ways against their interpretation of nature. Many times, people have a particular perspective and viewpoint on the problems that they see in their surroundings. In most situations, they choose to use their thoughts or feelings against the objects they see or hear, resulting in each of them attaching a particular meaning to certain things. Poets such as Robert Frosts and Wallace Stevens using their works that are “Desert Places” and “The Snow Man” respectively help in showing how people project their emotions towards what they understand about the landscape and nature in general. These two works by Robert and Wallace aim at showing the audience how people isolate themselves from nature and the rest of the world, creating the idea of loneliness and segregation. This fact is shown in the below summaries of both poets with each using his work to show and prove to his audience about the presence of emptiness, detachment, and loneliness in the world in general.

“Desert Places” by Robert Frost

Robert Frost is considered as one of the most influential and famous poets in the United States who always produce different poems that leave the readers asking for more. The majority of his works seem to represent themes such as despair, emptiness, and loneliness regularly. This fact comes to be more elaborated in his magnificent poem, “Desert Places.” This poem is a clear indicator and testament of the harrowing nature of most of the people call solidarity. Robert Frost uses different literary devices to spice up his work and encourage the readers to continue reading more and more of this poem. This work is based on a setting that is characterized by the winter season (Frost 256). Moreover, Robert uses metaphor to assign this poem a title which is shown by him referring to the desert place as the state of spiritual and moral wilderness that is present in the mind of the human being instead of referring to a place that is abandoned by people as most of the people would think. Robert has also used techniques such as alliteration, which is evident in the line possessing the words “lonely, loneliness, lonely and less.”

The speaker is seen traveling through the countryside during a certain winter evening, and feelings of isolation seem to be overwhelming him. While solitary walking along this desert place, Robert can see both the night and the snow descending at the same time during this particular evening which creates a black and white environment (Knobloch 154). To Robert Frost, both the snow and the night seem to work in unity hence creating an obliterate perception which is entirely a paradox since these the black and white nature of both night and snow always work against each other with the aim of further heightening perception.

By giving ghastly light to facilitate one to see the darkness, the snow is ever working against the night. On the other hand, the night, which according to the narrator is now falling at high speed necessitates the need of one to see since this opportunity is likely not to be there for long. As a result of this facts, Robert at first sees something which seems to have an actual existence which is termed as the field (Wang 284). What makes Robert conclude this is a landscape is the existing few weeds and stubble which brings into his awareness that this must be a cultivated field and not a forest that has been cleared by the human beings. That makes this area a God given nature that people through their activities on it have given it both identity and purpose. The juxtaposition of both stubble and weeds helps the narrator to show the readers the real conflict within man and nature.

According to the speaker, all of the fields, which seems to be covered by snow is a place, which is deserted, and there is absolutely nothing to express what is in sight. Robert Frost uses white as the color of the snow to symbolize the empty and open spaces that are present in this desolate place, which is covered by the white blanket of snow (Knobloch 178). Robert Frost who is the narrator of the poem considers this place as to possess nothing better other than the falling snow and the rapid thoughts of loneliness that seems to take over in his mind continuously.

As elaborated by the first line in the poem, the field gradually becomes a dead thing, an inanimate, and one that fails to reflect the presence of the great care given to it by man as the snow continues piling up on the field hence further creating more distinctions (Wang 312). That is despite man who in this case Robert is giving it its positive identity by concluding that whatever he saw during this evening was a field and not any other thing. If in any case the involvement of man in this area is removed, it would not be any further considered as a field, and no meaning would be attached to it resulting to it being identified negatively.

The nothingness that existing at the center of the trees leaves Robert feeling lonely in the universe that would now be considered as dead. Robert then realizes that he too becomes part of the loneliness due to the separation that exists between him and the nature of the environment that exists in this desert place hence confronting him more with the deadness of the external world (Frost 258). Robert has achieved the use of paradox in this stanza by incorporating the aspect of him feeling lonely and while at the same time recognizing the plurality that exists about the existence of materials.

The aromatic concept is created by the analogy between the standard condition of the individual psychology and the condition associated with nature. In the first three stanzas of the poem, Robert Frost seems to create an operative view of both nature and man (Knobloch 210). However, the mutual relations that erupt from this direction of opinion is negative instead of being positive, it is pluralistic in nature instead of insisting on monistic, it is full of loneliness rather than unity, and it seems to be more dangerous rather supporting life.

The fact that the woods located in the forest existing in this field have their place in nature make Robert jealous of them as he still cannot get over with his loneliness. Robert uses the woods in the poem as a symbol of people and the society in general. Robert seems to feel a lot of loneliness inside him that he is confident that he is not part of anything including nature itself (Wang 378). By now, Robert appears to lack even a little enthusiasm for life, which is facilitated by the feeling of numbness caused by the snow that continues to fall and cover the field hence unable to express his feelings present deep inside him. The stanza, “They cannot scare me with their space, who cares how I feel, I do not need anyone else” is clear confirmation of how Robert Frost has despaired in life and feels utterly lonely.

Robert Frost seems to be slowly shutting himself from the rest of the world. To him, the current winter place that he is walking along a is precise replica of the life that he is currently living. Just like the snows creeps silently over the field so does both loneliness and depression does in his life hence paralyzing his future (Frost 260). Unless he does something urgently, Robert Frost who is the speaker in this poem is likely to have everything that he calls he been snuffed out of his hands similarly like what the snow does to nature.

“The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens

During his early stages of a career as a poet, Wallace Stevens was influenced by John Keats of, “The Romantic,” but soon moves into the shadow of this poet by discovering his approach and voice towards what he thought was worth writing about in general (Stevens 62). It is from this experience that he comes up with the poem, “The Snow M an,” which is a complete rejection of the Romantic impulse from Keats. The Romantic notion is entirely towards an individual projecting his or her feelings on the natural world that exists around him or her which is a show of how Wallace rejects aesthetic aspect advocated by Keats (Brennan 100).

Wallace admits that it is challenging for people including him not to fall the pathetic fallacy and individuals should always strive to archive this central objective. Wallace is of the opinion that people should fight against the thought of considering the winter season a total waste of time just because people are unable to do much during such a season hence making them less productive (Dunn 59). It is the duty of the readers and everyone, in general, to prevent themselves from hearing the notes of misery that at times found in the sound of wind during the winter seasons which further demoralizes them and prevents them from fighting against the challenges that nature puts before them.

Wallace Stevens successfully uses a metaphor by awarding this poem the title, “The Snow Man.” To him, this title means that any individual who is an observer or listener of the current nature must possess the qualities of snow (Brennan 101). According to Wallace, these characteristics include being objective, cold, detached and free from ego. Most of the people would associate the meaning of the title of this poem to a real man who lives are places full of snow or even others thinking that Wallace Stevens refers to the man who is made of snow.

Wallace who is the narrator in the poem warns the readers from involving themselves with the non-human world that is characterized by the presence of both snow and wind and still tells them to aim at being like snow hence bringing the literary device of paradox forward. The author uses this poem to encourage people to use the approach of being more detached and cold while touching the snow that covers the bushes and trees that are found in nature (Stevens 65). Wallace advocates for the observer to try his or her level best to ensure that he or she does not associate misery with the mournful sound that comes along with winter. The monitor should make sure that he or she does not bring feelings about the various issues that he or she faces onto the landscape of winter that is existing in the area (Fogarty 73). Instead of associating incorrect emotions and attitudes to nature, the observer by resting the urge of projecting his or her feelings on the snowy landscape will be in a better position to see existing bareness of the landscape for what it is and not what others want it to be.

Wallace Stevens uses the final line of this poem to show the similarity of the two different senses of “nothing.” The first feelings of nothing talk about the observer, not in any given way projecting or attributing false meaning onto the landscape but instead will be able to behold the emptiness, sadness, misery, and emptiness that comes along with the human projections of the world of nature (Dunn 63). Wallace seems to use the second stanza to support the idea of everything being considered as subjective hence ensuring that no phenomenal experience of what we term as the world prevails at any given time. Using his work, Wallace wants his audience to think of nature as being a cool detachment and not allow themselves to be hardened or become unreceptive towards the real and pleasant beauty of the nature that has been granted to us by God.

Conclusion

The above two works play a great role in bringing forward to the audience how people tend to attach different emotions while awarding their meaning to nature that surrounds them. The authors of the two poems have successfully used various literary devices such as symbolism, paradox, alliteration, and metaphors among others to put across their ideas to their readers.

Works cited

Frost, Robert. “Reclaiming the Desert Places.” Scientific American, vol. 30, no. 17, 2014, pp. 256–256., doi:10.1038/scientificamerican04251874-256.

Brennan, James F. X. ”One Way of Looking at Wallace Stevens.” Wallace Stevens Journal, vol. 37, no. 1, 2013, pp. 100–101., doi:10.1353/wsj.2013.0000.

Dunn, Allen. ”In the Shadow of Central Man: Self-Transcendence and Self-Discovery in Charles Altieri’s Reading of Stevens.” Wallace Stevens Journal, vol. 39, no. 1, 2015, pp. 56–64., doi:10.1353/wsj.2015.0004.

Fogarty, William. ”Wallace Stevens, in America, Thinks of Himself as Tom MacGreevy.” Wallace Stevens Journal, vol. 35, no. 1, 2011, pp. 56–78., doi:10.1353/wsj.2011.0001.

Knobloch, Frieda. ”Chapter 10. Rocks of Ages: The Decadent Desert and Sepulchral Time.” Rendering Nature, doi:10.9783/9780812291452-010.

Stevens, Wallace. ”The Snow Man.” Writing New England, doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674335486.c20.

Wang, Li. ”An Artistic Analysis on Robert Frost’s Desert Places.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 3, no. 11, Jan. 2013, doi:10.4304/tpls.3.11.2092-2097.