Frost’s poems are local in colour but universal in appeal.

Answer

“Frost’s poems are local in colour but universal in appeal.” Discuss. [2021, 2017, 2015] ✪✪✪    

Robert Frost (1874–1963) is known as the poet of New England, the rural region where he lived. His poems are filled with the sights and sounds of American countryside life—woods, farms, fields, and snow. But his poetry goes beyond local color. Through these simple country settings, he talks about universal human feelings like loneliness, duty, loss, and the meaning of life. His poems are local in color but universal in appeal. Let us discuss this through some of his famous poems.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: In this poem, Frost describes a man who stops beside the woods on a snowy evening. The scene is very local — quiet woods, snow, and a frozen lake. The man says,

“Whose woods these are I think I know.”

But as he looks at the beauty of nature, it attracts him to stay longer. It seems that the man wants to take eternal rest there. But soon he remembers his duties and responsibilities. He realizes that he still has a long way to go in his life before he can take a rest.

“But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep…”

Every person in the world faces this same situation — the wish to rest and the need to continue life’s journey. So, this simple local scene brings a universal human truth to us.

Out, Out—: In “Out, Out—” (1916), Frost describes a tragic accident at a rural farmhouse. The poem is set in rural Vermont. A young boy is cutting wood with a buzz saw when his hand is suddenly cut off. He dies soon after. But others soon return to their daily affairs.

“And they, since they

Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”

The poem shows the universal truth that life is very short,