ANALYSIS OF “BIRCHES”

"Birches" is one of Robert Frost's most popular and beloved poems. Yet, like so much of his work, there is far more happening within the poem than first appears.

"Birches" was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in August of 1915; it was first collected in Frost's third book, Mountain Interval, in 1916. "Birches," with its formal perfection, its opposition of the internal and external worlds, and its sometimes dry wit, is one of the best examples of everything that was good and strong in Frost's poetry.

The main image of the poem is of a series of birch trees that have been bowed down so that they no longer stand up straight but rather are arched over. While the poet quickly establishes that he knows the real reason that this has happened—ice storms have weighed down the branches of the birch trees, causing them to bend over—he prefers instead to imagine that something else entirely has happened: a young boy has climbed to the top of the trees and pulled them down, riding the trees as they droop down and then spring back up over and over again until they become arched over. This tension between what has actually happened and what the poet would like to have happened, between the real world and the world of the imagination, runs throughout Frost's poetry and gives the poem philosophical dimension and meaning far greater than that of a simple meditation on birch trees.

Robert Frost's Birches is 59 lines of blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, that divides into three sections. The first 20 lines graphically describe the slender, flexible trees and how they may become bent temporarily by "some boy's . . . swinging [on] them" or permanently by ice storms.

As early as line 1 we see the poet employing the kinds of devices that raise blank verse to a level above prose: the interior rhyme of "When" and "bend, the short "e"s of those words assonating with "left": the assonant vowel-sounds in "I" and "right." Further along Those long "i" sounds already mentioned are heard again in the repeated pronoun I and "ice," and the alliterative "l's" of "lines . . .like . . .Loaded" become an ear-pleasing pattern. That's all I will point out about the vowel and consonant music of this wondrous poem so that I can keep this article under the length limit.

This first movement of the poem is descriptive, and the visual and auditory images stand out clealy even to one who has never experienced an ice storm, much less had an opportunity to be a swinger on birches.

. . . Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel

No, Mr. Frost, I have never seen them, but I feel I have thanks to the resonant clarity of your verse. I now visualize them and hear the sounds of their clicking in the wintry breeze, the clacking and crazing of their ice coatings that you compare to brittle enamel. I feel I'm experiencing a New Hampshire winter. I'm a little less chilly as I read about the sun's warmth and see with my mind's eye the

. . .shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust.

I picture the glistening fragments as "heaps of broken glass to sweep away" as though "the inner dome of heaven had fallen." Meanwhile the lovely trees with their white trunk bark and black branches bend under their winter weight to the level of the ferny bracken, performing a deep obeisance from which they never resurrect themselves. The picture is made even clearer by this segment-concluding simile comparing the birches to "girls on hands and knees that throw their hair/Before them over their heads to dry in the sun."

With the second movement of our visual and musical composition, arrives a shift from factual observation to fanciful imaginings. Line 21 talks about what the speaker had intended to say had he not been interrupted by Truth. Truth here is not so much a poetic personification as it is a way to avoid some hackneyed phrase like "as a matter of fact."

The speaker knows what ice storms do to birches, but he prefers to think the bending of the trees was done by "some boy" going to do his chore of fetching the cows. Farm boys in remote locations can't join Little League baseball teams so they find their own ways to exercise and entertain themselves. They don't swing baseball bats but they become swingers on birches. They climb the slender trees to their topmost height where the branches can no longer bear the weight and must bend toward the ground where the swingers can let go and drop a short distance to the earth rather than having to climb back down as they would were it a sturdy oak or other such tree..

The imagined boy becomes more and more real as the poet, clearly drawing on abilities he learned as a boy, describes in detail the exact height to which to climb, the flinging outward, "feet first, with a swish,/ Kicking his way down through the air to the ground." By this time we have nearly forgotten the "matter-of-fact that the permanent bends in birch trees are not caused by playful boys but by ice storms.

Movement three begins at line 41.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.

Grown men do not amuse themselves with children's activities. When Frost or his speaker dreams of going back to that stage of life, swinging on birches accrues symbolic meaning. Climbing this kind of tree stands for getting away from the workaday matters of life on the ground and then coming back with a renewed, refreshed spirit. We hear the negativity of

. . . when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twigs' having lashed across it open.

"Don't misunderstand me," he says. Although I described tree climbing as ascending "toward heaven," notice that I have italicized "toward" for purposes of emphasis. This is no death wish. I want to be returned to the ground as was the boy in movement two because

. . . .Earth's the right place for love:

I don't know where it's likely to go better.

Despite the simplicity and conversational tone of this homely piece of Americana, there appears to be a literary allusion in the lines

May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return.

This business of wishes half granted and half denied struck a chord and caused me to research classical literature I have not read since my undergraduate days.

In Homer's Iliad, Achilles prays that Patroclus recapture the Greeks ships that have fallen into the hands of the Trojans and return safely from that dangerous mission. Here are the lines:

Great Jove consents to half the chief's request,

But heaven's eternal doom denies the rest;
To free the fleet was granted to his prayer:
His safe return, the winds dispersed in air.

Patroclus does manage to recapture the ships, but he is slain by Hector in so doing. Achilles' wish is only half granted.

The same thing happened in Virgil's Aeneid when a Trojan hero prays to Apollo that he be victorious in battle and return home safely.

Apollo heard, and granting half his pray'r,
Shuffled in winds the rest, and toss'd in empty air.

In Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, the gods also grant half wishes. The hero who wishes to abscond permanently with the lock of fair Belinda's hair and possess it forever. However,

The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,

The rest, the wind dispers'd in empty air.

Pope in his mock epic was certainly alluding to Achilles' prayer, the similar prayer in the Aeneid, and the proverbial ill wind that blows no one good.

Though Frost's poem appears optimistic, it still rings with whiplashes across the open eye and the pathlessness of the wood of life. Think of the grimness of "Out, Out" where an injured boy dies and people shrug and turn to their own affairs. Frost's world is made up of "Fire and Ice.," not sweetness and light. Think of the malevolent deity in his "Design," the bleakness of "Desert Places," the "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," the excruciating pain mingled with emotional and sexual dysfunction in "Home Burial." If you like unequivocally happy endings, choose a different poet.

THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH

“There Was a Child Went Forth” by Walt Whitman illustrates his position as part of the new American Tradition and his desire to fulfill the call for a poet who “sings the materials of America” by Emerson. The poem is earthy and real: the emotion, events and perceptions are that of the average person. The lofty ideas presented within are approachable because they are part of the every-man’s perception and life.

Walt Whitman’s language is loose yet precise, varied but common, and it illustrates a perfect balance between the real and the artistic. The structure flows coalesces and begins to flow again while all the while remains a simple list-like form.
However ,within this list, he pulls and plays with emotions and moves from excitement into doubt and then to resolution to rescind all doubts. Doubt begins as the child moves from the pleasant natural world into the human world he is subjected to. The ills of the drunkard, the boys and his father manipulate the child and pushes him beyond the comfortable bounds of childhood and nature and forces him to deal with the negative aspects of human existence: the child moves from the tactile understanding of reality into the doubt of the mind. The permanency of emotion and the place of the individual within the group.
Finally, the real world intrudes again and the child leaves the mental world and resolves to enter the real world experiences the world as it is without being subjected to the existential doubts that flooded his mind as the world intruded on his excitement.

This is most definitely a Bildungsroman poem, providing a description of any one child's disillusioning transition from childhood to adulthood. It begins with a child living in the country - nature surrounds the child with good things (like flowers); nature is also a sign of innate goodness and innocence. As the poem procedes, the child grows, and moves from the country to a small town, to a city. The city is very industrialized, crowded, and corrupt. The child has gained knowledge, but he is not bad or corrupt...he is well-rounded, with a healthy skepticism.
Another aspect that you may want to note is Whitman's use of balanced pairs: mother/father, country/city, childhood/adulthood, etc. So this poem is about what a child experiences of good and bad stays with him or her for life.

Whitman was referring to life in the eyes of a child or a newly born baby how he memorized things for the first and how his childhood and neighborhood became a part of him , and so will affect his life in the future. And this poem might be referring to how whitman's childhood affected and played a role in his life today. He discusses about the imagination of a child and how everything around him molds him to how he is now as an adult. He made use of nature and everyday people that everyone feels impacted life (mother and father).He is reflecting on his childhood years by mentioning old images like the "friendy boys" and the "fresh-cheek'd girls" to show the innocence of life when young.


So Whitman in this poem carefully transitions from his own personal life and relations with himself to his relationship with mother earth and nature. He combines the elements of nature with those of his soul comparing and contrasting the good and the bad.It is a very romanticism kind of idea. Whitman talks about the different elements that have shaped his life in his adulthood and the impact they will leave in the future. Whilst showing respect for nature and life and America.

So the basic thing which he wants to tell us is that how the child gets older, the lines of the poem get longer. Written in free-verse, there is an overlapping progression seen throughout the poem: the child first notices objects, then nature, then animals, then people, then machines. The progression can also be seen in the specific things the child notices: at first, he or she notices "early" lilacs, third-month lambs, calves...all things representing new life. The child begins to understand that many different things can have the same color, such as the red and white morning-glories and the clover. Then the child branches out to the barnyard and sees "feild-sprouts of the
Fourth- and Fifth-month" and apples trees with flowers and then "the fruit afterward," symbolizing the growing maturity of the child. He or she is beginning to differentiate people by their age, gender, and race, and
behavior, as seen by the descriptions of many different kinds of people. Another interesting point: the child realizes that not everything he sees is good, such as the drunkard and the weeds. The poem then moves to the parents and shows that along with giving the child physical life, the mother and father also gave their child more of themselves than that: it talks about the "wholesome," gentle mother before talking about the "mean, anger'd, unjust" father. However, these words are not mean to be as harsh as they seem. Fathers (as well as mothers) seem
"mean" to their children when they make rules and set limits, "anger'd" when their child disobeys those limits, and "unjust" when they punish their child for their disobedience. All of the child's family experiences stay
with him during his life, and at home he can always find "affection that is not gainsay'd."
As the child gets older, he begins to think about the things he views - "the doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time" - and wonders if things happen by random chance or if there is a purpose to his everyday life.
The rest of the poem uses very descriptive language. It first talks about a journey on a ferry that in today's world can be compared to a child going off to college. Although it makes one nervous, there is still a safe
destination in sight: "the village in the highland." Also, a ferry is a large, slow-moving boat, and much less frightening than a tiny schooner being hurried and slapped by "tumbling waves." The voyage on the schooner
can be compared to the rest of the child's life: unsure and dangerous, but most likely worth the trip. The image of the horizon suggests an unknown, an area still to be discovered, adventures that have yet to take place,
etc.

"The strata of color'd clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint away solitary by itself, the spread of purity it lies motionless in...these became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go
forth every day." Each one of our experiences has an effect on us, whether temporary or
permanent, that shapes the rest of our lives.

GIVE ME THE SPLENDID SILENT SUN

“GIVE ME THE SPLENDID SILENT SUN” BY Walt Whitman is a free verse poem which was published in 1865 and in this period world war approaching to its end. Basically Whitman presents the prose and cons of society both of country life and city life. There are two parts of this poem. In first part the poet said that he is fed up from the city life and want to enjoy the beauties of nature for which he ant to go to village but in second part he said that I did not left my Manhattan.

The poem begins with longing of sunlight mean he wants the life of countryside because he is totally fed up from the busy life of city life. Along with this he wanted to enjoy the life of tranquility with the shining rays of sunlight that if you want to gaze at sun it blurs your vision. Then he further said that the people of city life would not get the fresh fruits as people living in village life got them so he wishes for the fresh fruits from orchards and fresh juices that coming straight from orchards. This what he is craving for. Then again he wants that grass which is unmowed and rough. He wants to take rest under shady tree and have a desire that he should get the trellised grape (a structure which is used to support creeping wine plant). He was fed up from humdrum of day to day life. He again wishes for the fresh wheat and corn and the serene (calm) movement of animals such as cows, buffalos, goats etc. As Wordsworth said that “nature plays a role of teacher and preacher, mother and a nurse.” He is of the view that this is the purest of pure life where nights are perfectly quiet and gardens are full of beautiful flowers without disturbing anyone. He wishes to marry a woman who never adore and children who are respectful, genuine and careful to the parents and children. He further said that he is sick of this noisy world and want peace and calm. He wanted to sing that song which is rthymical and spontaneous. The village life does not have any artificiality. The poet wants solitude and loneliness. He is sick to the city life.

The mood of the writer changes in the second part of poem which is the praise of city life that keep your splendid silent sun. he is so deeply routed in city life that he was accustomed of the habitat of city. If someone is away from city life he is just like a fish out of water. He loves and adores the busting life of Manhattan. There is hustle and bustle in the city life. The poet did not wants that blessings and beauties of nature. He tells that villagers can keep everything by their own selves and did not give to anybody. He loves the crowded scenes of Manhattan of America where streets are thronging with people and thickly appreciated. They rub shoulders to each other while passing from any street. He is in habit of interaction of men and women. He wanted pavements of cities rather than footpaths of village. He is of the view that those who are in habit of city life would not adjust in village life. He wanted those eyes which are countless in large number. He was accustomed to the city life where he wanted moral liberal society. He wishes to live in that place where people can change their partners. He had longings for sexual appetites. People living in city wants change. He desires for the sound of trumpets and drums of soldiers. He wanted life full of charm, solitude and repletion. Having bar rooms, huge hotels, dancing clubs and saloons on ship. At night torch-light procession was held which is another mean of heavy traffic which creates rush and make city noisy. The people wounded by rustle was also seen in Manhattan and chorus was varied. He loves every part of Manhattan and he is devoted to it. In fact he is idol worshipper of Manhattan. As city was known for its ostentations and artificiality so he is in praises of this city. At the end he wants all the things of Manhattan and he never leave it.

walt whitman introduction

WALT WHITMAN

Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.^[1] His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War in addition to publishing his poetry. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle.

Whitman's sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. Though biographers continue to debate his sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions.^[4] However, there is disagreement among biographers as to whether Whitman had actual sexual experiences with men.^[5] Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. He supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the extension of slavery generally. His poetry presented an egalitarian view of the races, and at one point he called for the abolition of slavery, but later he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to democracy.

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman, age 37, frontispiece to Leaves of Grass, Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y., steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison.

Main article: Leaves of Grass

Whitman claimed that after years of competing for "the usual rewards", he determined to become a poet.^[35] He first experimented with a variety of popular literary genres which appealed to the cultural tastes of the period.^[36] As early as 1850, he began writing what would become Leaves of Grass,^[37] a collection of poetry which he would continue editing and revising until his death.^[38] Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic^[39] and used free verse with a cadence based on the Bible.^[40] At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the already-printed first edition of Leaves of Grass. George "didn't think it worth reading".^[41]

Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself^[41] and had it printed at a local print shop during their breaks from commercial jobs.^[42] A total of 795 copies were printed.^[43] No name is given as author; instead, facing the title page was an engraved portrait done by Samuel Hollyer^[44], but in the body of the text he calls himself "Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, disorderly, fleshly, and sensual, no sentimentalist, no stander above men or women or apart from them, no more modest than immodest"^[45]. The book received its strongest praise from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote a flattering five page letter to Whitman and spoke highly of the book to friends.^[46] The first edition of Leaves of Grass was widely distributed and stirred up significant interest,^[47] in part due to Emerson's approval,^[48] but was occasionally criticized for the seemingly "obscene" nature of the poetry.^[49] Geologist John Peter Lesley wrote to Emerson, calling the book "trashy, profane & obscene" and the author "a pretentious ass".^[50] On July 11, 1855, a few days after Leaves of Grass was published, Whitman's father died at the age of 65.

During the first publications of Leaves of Grass, Whitman had financial difficulties and was forced to work as a journalist again, specifically with Brooklyn's Daily Times starting in May 1857.^[57] As an editor, he oversaw the paper's contents, contributed book reviews, and wrote editorials.^[58] He left the job in 1859, though it is unclear if he was fired or chose to leave.^[59] Whitman, who typically kept detailed notebooks and journals, left very little information about himself in the late 1850s.^[60]

Civil War years

As the American Civil War was beginning, Whitman published his poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" as a patriotic rally call for the North.^[61] Whitman's brother George had joined the Union army and began sending Whitman several vividly detailed letters of the battle front.^[62] On December 16, 1862, a listing of fallen and wounded soldiers in the New York Tribune included "First Lieutenant G. W. Whitmore", which Whitman worried was a reference to his brother George.^[63] He made his way south immediately to find him, though his wallet was stolen on the way.^[64] "Walking all day and night, unable to ride, trying to get information, trying to get access to big people", Whitman later wrote,^[65] he eventually found George alive, with only a superficial wound on his cheek.^[63] Whitman, profoundly affected by seeing the wounded soldiers and the heaps of their amputated limbs, left for Washington on December 28, 1862 with the intention of never returning to New York.^[64]

Writing

Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like.^[1] He also used unusual images and symbols in his poetry, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris.^[102] He also openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution.^[82] He is often labeled as the father of free verse, though he did not invent it. About poetic theory Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society.^[103] This connection was emphasized especially in "Song of Myself" by using an all-powerful first-person narration.^[104] As an American epic, it deviated from the historic use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people.^[105] Leaves of Grass also responded to the impact that recent urbanization in the United States had on the masses. Other important works of Whitman are Among the Multitude, Beat! Beat! Drums!, Facing West from California's Shores, From Pent-Up Aching Rivers, I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing, A Noiseless, Patient Spider, O Captain! My Captain!, O Hymen! O Hymenee!, On the Beach at Night, To a Stranger, Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field one Night, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer and The World Below the Brine.