Robert Frost

Beginnings of Modernism (artistic, literary movement beginning in 1910s-1920s which tries to �reinvent� experience of literature/art from departing from or adapting traditional models).  Divorced from past�modern situation is wholly new, no historical precedent (Freud/Darwin had questioned key tenets of traditional religious ideology) Modernism vs Traditionalism

In Literature, we move away from traditional verse forms (free verse, imagism�influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry �images�)

Write literature that appropriate to the age

Eliot, Pound, Joyce (stream of consciousness�trying to reproduce actually undigested thoughts of characters) interior rather than exterior

Robert Frost is transitional figure from Traditionalism to Modernism . . . he uses trad. Verse forms but his subjects are often modernist (existential�meaning of existence created in the very act of �performing� or creating a work of art)  Jazz music is existential (Charlie Parker existential music?  Music of the moment of creation?  Intuition, improvisational not pre-planned)

Robert Frost defines Poetry�as a temporary �stay� (Hold-off) against chaos�we bring order/meaning to the otherwise scary meaningless universe

�Birches��begins description of trees during ice storm when they�re bent down�modernist element, he lets his unconscious or stream of consciousness take over �inner dome of heaven had fallen��the old traditional view of universe; he likes to think �some boy�s been swinging on them� (tangent) or girls thrown hair before them drying in sun�sensual imagery-connection to nature

Switches gears mid-way through poem: �But I was going to say when Truth broke in/With all her matter of fact about the ice storm,�

Dream-memory of swinging birches �I was once a swinger of birches��metaphorically, a dreamer, who used his imagination   We were all swingers of birches when young, when our imagination was strong and defined reality instead of rationality defining reality

�Earth�s the right place for love:/I don�t know where it�s likely to go better.�  Swinging birches is a metaphor about moving earth and heaven (physical and the spiritual)   Do we need heaven and perfect love or is the imperfect earth a better place to experience/create love?  Love�authentic emotion/connection/meaning

�That would be good both going and coming back./One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.�  One could do worse than being a human being, stuck in an existence that we continually have to strive to make sense of. 

�Death of the Hired Man�

Narrative poem that tells story elliptically through image, dialogue and interior monologue (consciousness) interiority  no real exposition (or placing the setting or preparing for the events�in medias res�in the midst of things)

Use of dialogue to indicate character: Warren (hard, harsh, grudging respect for labor, not his duty to care for his fellow man) and Mary (sweet, kind, sympathetic, understanding, we know Silas, he�s not just some stranger, community obligation, religious obligation)

Moon imagery: �The moon, the little silver cloud, and she.�  What�s the moon mean?  How is Mary connected to it?  Change, cycles, feminine, visualization of death, transformation

Warren is all guy�he doesn�t understand the moon; where Mary is full of the moon

Warren is archetypal male (unemotional, rationalistic, unconnected) vs. Mary female (emotional, empathetic, connected to the life cycle as a mother, child, daughter) woman as life-giver

Silas vs. Harold�if Silas could have just shown Harold how to make a stack of hay, he would have �done something� with his otherwise useless existence?

The poem gives us different perspective on Silas� life and its meaning, but they�re not necessarily definitive   Silas as part of nature, elements, not separated from experience by �books� (as Harold is)

Poem is written blank verse

�Home Burial� husband and Amy: imagery of stones   men and women dealing with grief in different ways: husband deals with grief�silence/work/digging grave/action   Amy deals with grief: blaming him for not being open with emotions, not communicative, not sympathetic

Ambiguity�we can sympathize for both  Frost doesn�t editorialize, but presents the �facts of the case,� so to speak