1. Week 9 Robert Frost 罗伯特 弗罗斯特

2.  Haste makes waste.  忙中有错  He that travels far knows much.  远行者，见识广

3. Robert Frost  settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth centuryrural lifeNew England  examine complex social and philosophical themes  Won the Pulitzer Prize four times  Read his poem The Gift Outright 《全心全意的 奉献》 in the inauguration[ ɪ n, ɔ :gjə’re ɪʃ ən] of Kennedy

4.  a poet of nature: a love-hate relationship with Mother Nature  peaceful moments of his life  the underside of nature disturbed him, Nature can be strong  folk philosopher

5. I. His life: 1.1874 March 26, born in San Francisco, California. 2.During high school, attracted by classic lyrics 3.1894, He wrote My Butterfly,$15, depend on writing to make a living 4.1900,The death of the first child tensed up his marriage, bought a farm in New Hampshire and lived there until 1909 5.As a farmer and teacher, he lived a hard life. 6.His life at that time was gloomy and disturbing. Suicide 7.Meanwhile, good observation of the beauty of the New England village and language 8.Not appreciated by the critics at that time 9.1913, the publication of A Boy’s Will 《少年的心愿》 fascinated the critics 10. 1963, January 29.died of a heart attack. 88 years old.

6. Writing features of Robert Frost  1) Frost's themes: Frost was a serious poet. Though he is generally considered a regional poet whose subject matters mainly focus on the landscape and people of New England, he wrote many poems that investigate the basic themes of human life. He wrote about the daily life of ordinary people—farmers, shepherds: small rural events, fence mending, apple picking, good and evil, all the matters of life and death. Some were not frequent poetical subjects for his time, but he insisted on them, not as ways to escape from modern society, but as ways to understand life better. 

7.  2) Frost's style: Frost had long been well known as a poet who can hardly be classified with the old or the new. Unlike most of his contemporaries in the early 20th century, Frost did not break with the older poetic tradition, nor did he make many experiments with form. Instead, Frost learned from tradition and made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression. Hence Frost's poems are full of life, truth, and wisdom. Compared with his contemporaries, his poems are filled with more energy and loaded with more pleasure, while those of the latter are often too obscure to be understood by the average reader. 

8.  3) Combination of tradition and modernism. Frost combined the traditional sonnet, rhyming couplets, and blank verse with a clear American local speech rhythm. In verse form, he took advantage of tradition and of the experiments of his contemporaries; he wrote in both metrical forms and free verse, sometimes he wrote in a form that borrows freely from both—a form that might be called semi-free and semi-conventional. Thus his poems are careful, loving explorations of reality. Many of his poems are fragrant with natural beauty.  A rhyming couplet is a poem where the two lines rhyme with each other and a whole poem is made up couplets where each pair of lines rhyme with each other.

9.  4) Deceptive simplicity. Frost wrote in a simple form with profound ideas. Most of his poems are short and direct on the informational level, with simple diction. However, it would be a mistake to imagine that Frost is easy to understand just because he is easy to read. As a matter of fact, Frost's poems were very carefully constructed, yet he made them seem effortless by using colloquial language and familiar, conventional rhythms. The profound ideas are often delivered under the disguise of plain language and simple form, for what Frost did is to take symbols from the limited human world and the pastoral landscape to refer to the great space beyond the rustic scene.

10. II. His works: 1.Collection of poems: 1)A Boy’s Will （ 1913 ）《少年的心愿》 2)North of Boston （ 1914 ）《波士顿之北》 3)Mountain Interval (1916) 《山间洼地》 4)New Hamphshire （ 1923 ）《新罕布什尔》 5)West-Running Brook （ 1928 ）《西流溪》 6)Collected Poems (1930) 《诗集》 7)A Further Range （ 1936 ）《又一重山脉》 8)A Witness Tree （ 1942 ）《标志树》 2.Poems: 1)After Apple-Picking 《摘苹果之后》 2)The Road Not Taken 《一条未走过的路》 3) Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 雪夜林边驻留》

11. Types of Frost’s poetry  1. dramatic poetry  A Servant to Servants 《仆人之仆人》 Monologue poem  The Death of Hired Man 《雇工之死》  Home Burial 《家葬》 Dialogue poem  2. Meditative poetry  A scene, an accident, description, emotion, philosophy  The Tuft of Flowers 《一簇野花》  The Road Not Taken 《未选择的路》  Mending Wall 《修墙》  Birches 《白桦树》  Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening 《雪夜停林边》

12. Types of Frost’s poetry  3. Satirical Poetry  Animals, insects, satirize the drawbacks in society.  Departmental 《部门分工》  A Considerable Speck 《小虫不小》  4. Philosophical poetry  A: shorter than meditative poetry  B: abstract concept involved  C: acid and pessimistic tone  Design 《计划》  Nothing Gold Can Stay 《接受》  Fire and Ice 《火与冰》

13.  After Apple-picking  《摘苹果之后》

14. Senses used?  Sight Sight  Hearing Hearing  Taste Taste  Smell Smell  Touch Touch

15. symbols  symbols prior to the poem's shift also help to create a peaceful and dreamy tone as well as expose the theme.  creates a abstract yet gentle tone.  paints a peaceful picture of society going about its work into the reader's mind.  After the shift,  a somber and tired tone

16. Key Themes  life's work and the desire for success and meaning. living life to its fullest apparent.  Death Unfinished tasks --Being unable to pick all the apples. Shattered dreams --The breaking of the ice on the trough. Religion--The ladder being a stairway to heaven. Senses --All but taste are mentioned. Senses are important. Only taste isn't mentioned, which is strange because we all know apples by taste. This is done to show that these apples represent something other than food.  It is like Birches in the sense that it's about not quite getting to heaven because you haven't achieved things in your life that should've.  Nature--Using nature as a metaphor for life.

17.  The Road not Taken

18.  In 1961, Robert Frost commented that "The Road Not Taken" is "a tricky poem, very tricky."  Robert Frost wrote The Road Not Taken after having moved to England to pursue with vigor his work as poet, he had come to the mid-point of his life

19. Literal interpretation  the poem is inspirational, a paean( 赞歌 )to individualism and non-conformism.paeanindividualism non-conformism  This poem is commonly known as "the path less traveled' by some, but its correct name is "the road not taken."  The poem's last lines, where the narrator declares that taking the road "less traveled by" has "made all the difference," can be seen as a declaration of the importance of independence and personal freedom.  "The Road Not Taken" seems to illustrate that once one takes a certain road, there is no turning back. Although one might change paths later on, the past cannot be changed. It can be seen as showing that choice is very important, and is a thing to be considered. And that you will never know what the other path was like, so you may regret never knowing (the sigh), although it was still worth it because you made the right choice by knowing that you were able to exercise your personal freedom and independence.

20. Ironic interpretation  poem about regret and personal myth-making, rationalizing our decisions.  final two lines are ironic – the choice made little or no difference at all, the speaker's protestations to the contrary. The speaker admits in the second and third stanzas that both paths may be equally worn and equally leaf- covered, and it is only in his future recollection that he will call one road "less traveled by".  The sigh, widely interpreted as a sigh of relief is actually of regret

21. Symbols in Road  the choice of road taken and not taken  The color yellow  The diverging  Morning

22. Ambiguity  It is the ambiguity in this poem hiding under what appears to be a simple idea extended through metaphor that makes the poem so successful. It is the questions that it raises that show us the realities of decision making.  Although the language is simple, Frost's sentence structures are not. There is ambiguity running throughout the poem.

23.  In the first line we are told that the traveler is standing in a "yellow wood".  semi colon: show the confusion. It would appear initially the choice will be made simply based on the frequency with which one path has been followed compared to the other. But the second part of the sentence makes it clear that there really is minimal if any difference in the usage of the paths.

24. Stanza 3  "Oh" Why is he keeping the first one until another day? Why is it the first one? If it is his first choice, why is he not taking it?

25. Stanza 4  Sigh: regret-- he feels he is making the wrong choice or he wishes he could do both as in "And sorry I could not travel both".  relief  "And that has made all the difference“  positive  negative

26. devices:  Antithesis( 对照 ). contradiction  When the traveler comes to the fork in the road, he wishes he could travel both. Within the current theories of our physical world, this is a non possibility (unless he has a split personality). The traveler realizes this and immediately rejects the idea. road less traveled.  First it's described as grassy and wanting wear, then he turns to say the roads are actually worn about the same

27.  Stopping by woods on a snowy evening

28. 雪夜伫立林边有感 林主曾相识， 村中有其舍， 未悉我在此， 凝视林中雪。 小马颇多疑， 荒野何伫立？ 林边冻湖间， 岁末黑夜里。 小马摇缰铃， 似问有否误， 唯闻飒飒声， 寒风共雪舞。 密林景色美， 信誓不可移， 安眠不可得， 尚须行数里。

29. Major Themes ambiguity”  the individual caught between nature and civilization.  The speaker's location on the border between civilization and wilderness echoes a common theme throughout American literature.  central theme is the speaker's dilemma in choosing between the allure of nature and the responsibilities of everyday life in human society.  The speaker is drawn to the beauty and allure of the woods, which represent nature, but has obligations—“promises

30.  Some critics have interpreted the poem as a meditation on death  suicide—the woods, “lovely, dark, and deep,” represent the allure of death as a means of escape from the mundane duties of daily life.

31. images  visual images (e.g. woods, house, village, snow, lake, harness bell)  auditory images (e.g. shakes of bells, the sweep of easy winds and downy flake). They correspond to the sensory feelings of the author as well as the readers, and therefore create vividness.

32. Symbolism  woods -- myth, the unknown world, and the utmost tranquility  the snowy evening. “It is the darkest evening of the year.” the authors mental state and emotion  The snow is cold and the evening dark, all of which indicate that the poet is depressed inside.  “little horse” with the inspiring bells-- vitality, urges him to go  “frozen lake” --- death.  “The promise” -- an obligation or a goal. One can not die before fulfilling one’s dream.  “sleep” ---represent death, just as we usually do.

33. Departmental  humans: specifically, the bureaucracy [bjuə’r ɔ krəsi] of organizational jobs in our world.  things are always 'someone else's job.'  the non-emotional way the ants live. an ant walks by a dead ant and tells the other ants, and one comes by to carry the dead one away. the ants are so focused on their own jobs, hey don't go out of their way for anything, they only do what's in their "department.“  the end of the poem, 'it's not ungentle, but departmental" is basically saying that ants aren't cruel, they just focus on their own affairs and aren't emotional.

34. Why is this Poem Called “The Most of It”?  Perhaps it represents the idea that nature is unable to fulfill a supportive role in the lives of humans, this brief encounter representing the most the man could have hoped for.  Or  something of a warning we see the buck busy and active, getting on with and enjoying his life, while the man wishes his away waiting for something that might never happen.

35. Action versus Inactivity  The contrast between the two characters in the poem is striking.  The poem begins with inactivity: the only action the man performs is to “cry out”, otherwise he spends his time thinking, waiting and hoping.  The buck, on the other hand, is associated with a range of dynamic verbs: “swim”, “pushing”, “landed pouring like a waterfall”, “stumbled” and “forced” all give an idea of a great flurry of activity once the buck appears.  His physical strength is clear from these verbs and from the line “as a great buck it powerfully appeared”, unlike the man whose power seems linked with mental rather than physical activity.

36. The Structure of the Poem  The final twelve lines of this twenty line poem are all one long sentence, encouraging the reader to speed up as they enter those lines describing the buck, coming to a climax in the final three lines which all begin with “and”, stressing the idea that the actions of the deer follow one after another without pause.  Ultimately, though, the poem is to end in disappointment. The buck is unwilling and unable to provide the man with the companionship he needs, and the whole event proves nothing but an anticlimax: “- and that was all”.  The hyphen forces a pause upon us  the use of four monosyllabic[,m ɔ nəs ɪ ’læb ɪ k] ( 单音节 的 ) words after the whirl of activity that has preceded this line brings us, and the man, back down to earth with a bump.

37. Style of Frost  Frost is sometimes praised for being a direct and straightforward writer. While he is never obscure, he cannot always be read easily. His effects, even at their simplest, depend upon a certain slyness for which the reader must be prepared.

38.  The Romantic poets of the 1800's believed people could live in harmony with nature. To Frost, the purposes of people and nature are never the same, and so nature's meanings can never be known. Probing for nature's secrets is futile and foolish.

39.  The poems of Robert Frost, such as "Mending Wall" (1914) and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (1923), are simple and readable on the surface.  But they reveal complex feelings, often through subtle irony and dry wit. Frost expressed in ordinary language the puzzling hints of doubt and uncertainty that haunt everyday incidents. These feelings connect him to modernism, despite his traditional meter, rhyme, and verse forms.