Parrott


 * Pasture**

Link: [] To begin this, Robert Frost has had plenty to grieve over in his lifetime. In this poem, the narrator is speaking about a pasture. He says that he must go out to “fetch” a calf from its mother. He will not be gone long. The calf is so small that it “totters” when the mother licks it with her tongue. Like most of Frost’s poetry, the literal meaning has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the poem. Frost is not very ambiguous if this poem is looked at literally. He is just talking about a pasture where he is going to get a calf. However, by looking at Frost’s background, it is obvious that this piece of poetry has much more depth to it than the soft, light-hearted surface meaning. Because of the death he has experienced in his family, I believe the speaker in this poem is actually the angel of death. The calf represents a baby he must take away from the world it is currently living in. Notice in the poem the narrator does not mention what he is going to do with the calf, all he says is “fetch,” he never mentions returning it. I stumbled on the ending line a bit, “You come too.” I am unsure as to what this means because I thought there was only one angel of death. Despite who the narrator is speaking to, it is someone in the angel of death’s court. This likely means it is another individual coming to bring death to someone else. It is not surprising that Frost would say this considering all of the death he has had in his family. The man was scarred: four of his six children died before he did and another was committed to a mental hospital (“Robert Frost”).

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 * This is the feeling I get when I first read the pasture. However, after interpreting it, it is pretty much the opposite. **


 * Mowing**

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In this poem, literally, the narrator is talking about cutting grass in a meadow or pasture. He thinks he hears the scythe whispering something but he is not sure what it is. While doing this, he is next to a wood. In the process of swinging his scythe, he scares a “bright green snake.” The narrator then ends the poem by talking about the hay and how it is left to “make.” This poem seems incoherent and random. The narrator goes from talking about the whisper of the scythe to the “heat of the sun” to a dream; he continues on rambling and finally ends with leaving the hay. I saw this poem as highly ambiguous because of the randomness it has, it really is not like any other Frost poetry I have read. When the narrator mentions a scythe, I immediately begin to think of the Grim Reaper and death. This is further confirmed when he begins talking about the hay and how it is laid down. Literally, by laying it down, the narrator is effectively killing the hay. He is disconnecting it from the root system and it will then die and dry up. The Grim Reaper does the same thing by taking people; they are buried and become part of the soil again. Another thing I noticed about this poem is that the narrator says he scared a “bright green snake.” Snakes are thought of as pretty evil creatures and the fact that the narrator scared one further makes me believe he is like the Grim Reaper. I believe Frost wrote this poem about death: looking at his biography confirms this considering the fact that he had multiple family members die and he did not experience much joy in his lifetime. Furthermore, the randomness also goes along with the theme of the Grim Reaper and death. I believe the randomness of the poem shows how random and surprising death can be. It can come at any moment to any individual and they are gone in the blink of an eye.
 * Fire and Ice**

Link: [] As I have said earlier, Frost did not have an easy life. He buried four of his children and committed one other to a mental hospital (“Robert Frost”). Obviously this would have left him scarred from all the grief it caused him and I believe this is where he gets much of the passion for his poetry from. The narrator in this poem is perusing in his own mind, discussing the end of the world to himself. He believes it will either end in fire or ice, the first time it will go down in flames and then, if it should happen again, he believes its demise will be ice. Frost, or the narrator, is not particularly ambiguous about this poem. It seems that he comes out and says what needs to be said. It is straight to the point and the narrator clearly communicates his thoughts to the reader. Here again, examining Frost’s biography will make the interpretation of this poem much easier. Fire and Ice are polar opposites. The narrator directly relates fire with desire which makes perfect sense because the both give one that “burning” sensation. Desire is a very strong emotion; think about it as love or its antonym, death. Many of us have likely lived long enough to have someone very close to us die. The burning pain experienced after that cannot be imitated by anything else. Frost had four children die on him before he left this world. I believe he had the opportunity to experience this quite often and I believe that is why he chose fire as the initial destroyer of the Earth. However, Frost says he thinks for the second time the Earth will go down in ice. Ice is cold and numbing, it is something that kills an individual slowly, not abruptly, but rather creeps up on one. I see ice as representing the mental problems his family had and the child that had to be placed in a mental hospital. Mental illness, like ice, is very cold. It is not a sharp pain but will cause one to change his entire view of life and how he acts. Frost’s life was changed because of the mental problems his family experienced (“Robert Frost”). He was not a happy man: this is what ice does to a person, it slowly withers them away.

**Design**

Link: [] Here, the narrator is talking about a spider he sees on a flower. The spider has a moth in his mouth that looks so pure and is on top of a white flower. The narrator questions the innocence of the surroundings with the death of the moth. He is curious why an evil spider would be allowed to kill an innocent moth with the assistance of an equally innocent looking flower. Looking at the literal meaning, ambiguity does not play a large role in this poem. The narrator is very clear on his description of the situation and what is occurring. Attempting to interpret the poem is very different. Like most of Frost’s poetry, the meaning of this one is hidden deeply within the words and really can only be explained as a person’s own interpretation. In that sense, the poem is actually highly ambiguous. Frost is speaking about design. Funny, that is the title. I think he does this to reference a Creation Theory called Intelligent Design which basically says God does exist and everything that happens in this world is controlled by Him, is intended to happen, and serves the greater good. Frost questions this theory openly in his poem. He is confused why a spider would be allowed to kill an innocent moth and more so that a pretty flower would aid the spider in doing so. Literally, Frost questions Intelligent Design in terms of the spider and moth but I believe he is also using this as a way to talk about his family and the tragedy that has occurred there. Frost really had a tough time with his family and I believe in this poem he is questioning God and why he has tormented him and his family members with their problems.

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 * Video linked below gives some of the eeriness in Frost's poetry.**


 * Neither Out Far Nor In Deep**

Link: [] The narrator begins this poem discussing some people on a beach. The people are looking out into the water, ignoring the land from which they came. He then goes into a description of the scenery with a “standing gull” and a ship. At the end, the narrator discusses the people looking at the sea and questions why they do not go into it. This poem was extremely ambiguous to me. It seemed that it was just a random beach with people doing very random things. I did not understand at first why Frost would describe a setting such as this. Everything he describes makes sense within the setting of the beach, but the way it is put together and the actions of the people are very strange. Frost has been described as a “frightening” poet by some and I believe this poem is an excellent example of that. When I read this poem I thought of the movie __The Happening__. To me it seems that all of the people presented in this poem are confused about their purpose and are about to engage in a mass suicide. The narrator even pushes forward a question at the end, “To any watch they keep?” as if asking their purpose. As I read the poem a couple more times, I began to think about that last line and Frost. I believe Frost may be thinking about suicide himself like was discussed in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” As seen from his biography, he has had a lot of trouble with his family and this really got to him during his lifetime. This is not only seen in his biography but in many of his poems. Furthermore, I think he may be asking himself that question in the last line and wondering his purpose here. **Scene from film __The Happening__.** Link for picture: []

Works Cited "Robert Frost." 21 Oct 2009. Wikipedia, Web. 9 Nov 2009. .