Robert Frost is one of the most popular and well-thought-of American poets in the last two periods of the humanties. His work is simple in subject but it can be highly detailed. He describes scenes and objects in such a way that it sends his message clearly every time. He was born in California but moved to Massachusetts at age 11 and later to New Hampshire. His birthplace may have affected his authorial intent. His intent was to write poetry that describes early 20th-century rural life in New England to people of other lifestyles.
Frost describes the quiet, hard-working, secluded New England lifestyle he pursued in many ways. One way was in poems about things he did. One, called After the Apple Picking, is about a day's work of picking apples. He follows the action of carrying the ladder, apples dropping to the ground, the compilation of all the harvested apples, the aching of his feet, and finally his rest time. Not once does he actually mention picking apples, but the entire story revolves around that action. This is one thing about his style that draws people to it; describing his main theme without speaking of it.
In the poem Departmental he conveys what he sees while sitting and observing nature. It's the story of an ant who dies. When another ant sees the corpse it tells the queen and then forgets the whole matter. The queen dispatches a worker to bury him somewhere and then forgets the order. The worker buries the ant without caring what happened or who it was. This ant had all the proper courtesies bestowed on it, but they were without feeling - very departmental. This is an instance where he connects city life to his rural life.
He analyzes two different methods of destruction in Fire and Ice. The poem is as follows.
Some say the world will end in fire
Some say in ice.From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction ice
Is also greatAnd would suffice.
In three sentences he sums up two possibilities for Armageddon - death by fire and death by ice. He finds that for those who are eager to face a challenge they should die by fire, but those who are reluctant should perish from cold. That symbolizes he wants to die by ice because he's laid back, not eager.He describes his lifestyle in many ways. He tells what he does, he conveys what he sees, and he ties in distant subjects to his life to give some of his messages. His work is easy to understand even with all these styles of reporting his lifestyle, and that's what makes him my favorite poet to date.
