Frost Depicts Modern Life in a Pastoral Setting

Answer

“Frost depicts modern life in pastoral setting.” Discuss.[2019, 2014] ✪✪✪ 

Robert Frost (1874–1963) is one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century. He lived and wrote in the modern age. He is famous for his portrayal of the simple pastoral settings of New England, where he lived. Frost’s poetry goes beyond the pastoral settings and focuses on the thoughts, struggles, and feelings of modern men. We will take a closer look below at how Frost depicts modern life in a pastoral setting.

Conflict of Human Heart: In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (1923), Frost describes a man who stops beside the woods on a snowy evening. The scene is calm, beautiful, and silent. Nature gives him peace and comfort. The woods attract 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…”

Here, Frost has shown the conflict of the human heart—the wish to rest and the need to continue life’s journey. This is the conflict of every modern man. Here, Frost uses the simple pastoral setting of snowy woods in the evening to focus on the modern man’s heart.

Cruelty and Indifference: 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 accidentally cut. He dies soon after. But others soon return to their daily affairs. Frost writes:

“And they, since they

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

The poem shows the cruelty of fate and the indifference of busy modern life.

Loss and Change: In “The Oven