Robert Frost Mending wall Out The Road not Taken Tuft of Flowers Acquainted with the night

Mending wall Based around a long-standing tradition between two neighbours. This poem uses easy lyrical language and a simple rural setting to contrast two different attitudes. They meet to mend the wall between their farms. The wall symbolises barriers / separations / divisions etc. In a wider sense it also represents tradition. Frost questions the blind acceptance of such barriers. The neighbour resists this, representing an older, unthinking perspective.

The language is simple, almost conversational but Frost is not opposed to walls / traditions. Note his use of traditional iambic pentameter. Walls / traditions have their value – rightly understood.

Out out Rural setting – almost cinematic in places. Farming tragedy – boy dies in sawing accident. Use of sensual imagery. The buzz saw is personified. Use of repetition. The ‘boy doing mans work’ draws attention to the harsh necessities of farming life. The understated reaction to his death reinforces this harshness.

Note the build up of tension…”and nothing happened”. Simple language, traditional rhythm. Note the speaker remains mostly detached. This forces the reader to make their own interpretation. The end, in particular, is disturbing and can be interpreted in multiple ways. Note too, the contrast between the beauty of the surroundings and the tragedy of the death.

Acquainted with the night Unusual urban setting. Set at night, in a city, in the rain. Very personal…lots of “I have”. It’s a repeated experience for the speaker. He is acquainted with the “night”…and what it symbolises. Note the self imposed isolation. The rain, emptiness, suggested violence all emphasise the speakers depressed mood. “the time was neither wrong nor right” may echo Hamlet’s words of despair from Shakespeare.

The speaker experiences the city as a place of alienation. Overall, a sad, bleak poem perhaps reflecting Frost’s personal tragedies and his lifelong struggle with depression. There is no lift, no solution. The poem simply ends as it begins.

The road not taken Rural setting. Simple language, almost conversational. The poem deals with the theme of choices and consequences. Central metaphor is the “path”. The speaker is initially reluctant to make a choice. He ponders and tries to anticipate the consequences of choosing one path. Then almost abruptly chooses the other – his claim for choosing is that it was less travelled.

Stanza three, however seems to contradict this. “both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black”. He realises that this moment, the moment of choosing will never be repeated as “ way leads on to way”. Despite his desire, he can’t keep “the first for another day”.

Finally he considers how he will look back upon or tell of this moment in his later years. He will sigh….why? Contentment, satisfaction, regret? Multiple possibilities. He will claim that he took the path less travelled by and that “has made all the difference”. But did he really? (stanza 3) And what is this difference? Is it positive? Or not?

Despite the simple language and familiar rural setting the main point seems elusive. Frost seems to be exploring or teasing out the difficult nature and uncertain consequences of the choices we are confronted with in life. Nothing, it seems, is certain…..

Tuft of flowers Rural setting Lone character Seeking the comfort of fellowship. Very simple language / rhyming scheme. Initially a bleak, “levelled” scene. No sight or sound of companionship! Nature itself appears silent. A random butterfly mirrors the speaker’s plight, it too seeks an elusive source of comfort. Its zig-zag flight suggests confusion. Then a change in tone occurs.

He sees the tuft of flowers. The mower spared them. At this point we begin to hear the sounds of nature in contrast to the earlier silence. The poet become more reflective, inward looking. The flowers metaphorically “speak” a “message from the dawn”. A “leaping tongue of bloom”. As the speaker becomes more reflective he imagines working and resting side by side with the mower. He imagines telling him that “men work together – whether they work together or apart. This philosohical realisation contrasts with his earlier assertion the men are essentially alone “ whether they work together or apart.