CONTRAST AND HORROR IN ROBERT FROST

K. N. D. Sanjeeva Rao

The poems of Robert Frost are known for their simplicity, lyrical quality, subtle humour and conversational tone at one level; but they are also known for their complexity of structure, seriousness of theme, philosophical profoundity, psychological conflict and suggestion of horror etc., at the deeper levels of their import. A close study of a few poems of Robert Frost reveals that the key to the divergent qualities of his poetry lies in his masterly use of contrast. The technique of contrast coupled with the poet’s imagination and symbolic suggestion lends a romantic charm and grandeur to the apparent simplicity of his poems.

As can be seen from some of his poems, Frost sets the ordinary and common issues of life against the ideals that are forgotten, or the ethical stand-points that have been ignored. In other words, he juxtaposes the actual with the ideal and disturbs the placid world of complacence and ignorance with his visions of moral excellence. The ready recognition and knowledge of the difference between the two states of existence makes the reader identify himself with one or the other of the contrasted sides and fills him with a feeling of estrangement and despondency and a sense of horror as to where he is drifting. Thus the horrid depths into which Frost’s poems open beneath their smooth surfaces make the reader feel that the world is a “savage place” highly insecure and risky and life is not a bed of roses until its exacting standards are met at the physical, spiritual and social levels.

In so far as the poet is concerned, he just highlights the differences and leaves everything else to the reader to conclude for himself, or tries to reconcile the conflict by suggesting his own solutions.

To begin with in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, one of the most famous poems of Robert Frost, we see that the owner of the woods who is indifferent to their beauty is contrasted with the poet who appreciates their loveliness. The contrast raises a host of aesthetic and philosophical questions in the mind of the reader relating to the issues of possessions and enjoyment of beauty and makes him brood over the destiny of man in a new predicament.

Then, the horse, which is always afoot and a symbol of busy and active life is contrasted with the poet who halts for a while to admire a lovely scene. As the poet favours ‘stopping by woods on a snowy evening” to enjoy their beauty, the horse entertains the opposite idea of passing by them non-stop for its own reasons. The animal has no sense of beauty ‘to watch (the) woods fill up with snow.” The poet has stopped “without a farm-house near.” So, there is no scope for food and drink or a comfortable stay overnight. Moreover, it is not safe to delay there by the woods because the lake is already “frozen” and it is “the darkest evening of the year”. The poet’s behaviour bewilders it and sends creeps of horror across its flesh. It considers him “queer” and “gives his harness bells a shake/ to ask if there is some mistake’.

On the other hand, the behaviour of the horse evokes tremors of horror in the poet’s mind, too, and raises questions far more serious and subtler than the horse could think of: Isn’t beauty an essential part of life? Shouldn’t we stop for a while to admire beauty when we find it? Who will admire it if we don’t? What is man going to be if he fails to respond to beauty? Doesn’t it imply the presence of “some mistake” in him, although of a different kind than the horse suspects it to be? etc., Questions that galvanize us with a deep concern for the fast-disappearing human values in the modern age. Now it is entirely left to us weather we choose to be on the side of the horse or the poet. Perhaps, a sort of reconciliation is effected between the two sides in the last stanza when the poet contrasts and also compromises his love of beauty with his sense of duty.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”

Enjoyment of beauty alone does not constitute a complete life, as round-the-clock work alone doesn’t. One should not make us oblivious of the other. But, are we living a complete life? Are we giving up our indulgence for fulfilling our responsibilities?…. are the sort of questions suggested to us in introspection. Thus, the poem with its complex system of contrasts and suggestions makes a case for a complete and balanced life and goes on perturbing the reader until he learns to live it.

Another famous poem of Robert Frost “Mending Wall” presents a contrast between the attitudes of two New England farmers regarding the boundary walls between their orchards. The contrasting attitudes about the need of the wall between the neighbours is not only not reconciled, but ignorance seeming to resist all knowledge, chooses to be refractory and stubborn. The neighbour goes on with his rigmarole of his father’s saying “good fences make good neighbours”, as the poet is forced to withdraw his sermonising in utter hopelessness. Finally, we understand that both the farmers agreed to disagree and chose to maintain their respective stands.

But what is going to happen if things are allowed to continue thus? The poet leaves it to the reader to imagine for himself. Here, the poem begins to open into its real depth beneath the surface evoking powerful suggestions of horror and insecurity in the reader’s mind. “Mending Wall” seems to be an unending process in the world. It appears more so when the poem ends, not on a note of hope, but on one on despondency.

Soon, we discover that the issue of mending the wall does not confine itself to the personal sphere of the farmers only, but extends far beyond to the larger issue of what Tagore describes as the “Narrow domestic walls” by which the world is “Broken up into fragments”. But, do the good fences not make good neighbours of them all? We fondly ask the question in the context of the growing tensions and the brittle and deteriorating human relationships of the present day. The question sounds funny and absurd as we simultaneously hear the international borders ringing with the deafening explosions of gun-shots and the rumblings of the nuclear warfare threatening the world with a global conflagration.

Another interesting poem by Robert Frost “At Woodwards Garden” contrasts a school boy's behaviour with the monkeys in respect of using a convex glass. The school boy, with all his training and knowledge of physics, displays only an apish and a mischievous tendency in using the glass for burning the monkeys’ noses. The monkeys on the other hand, behave in a more sensible and responsible manner by snatching the glass off the hand of the boy and hiding it at the back of the cage beyond his reach. Thus, we are presented with a contrast here between knowledge and wisdom and Frost tells us that not knowledge about things, but making the right use of things is what matters most.

The small and unassuming poem “Unharvested” has an implied contrast with the harvested and thrives on account of its contradistinction from the latter. The poem has religious and spiritual overtones. The harvested apple lead to the fall of man. Now the unharvested apples have reversed the order:

“For there had been an apple fall

as complete as the apple had given man.”

And the unharvested tree, after the apple fall looks as forlorn and lonely as Adam and Eve after they harvested and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. Man, by leaving the apple tree unharvested, retributed the same fate on the tree which it caused him when he harvested it in the Garden of Eden. It has lost its glory now as he lost his glory then, and is left only with a ‘trival foliage’ now as he covered himself with a few leaves then. Then, if the fall of man caused the spilling of Christ’s blood, with the fall of the apples under the tree “The ground was one circle of solid red”. Thus, the poem contrasts and counter-balances the harvested tree, the fall of man and the suffering of Christ on his account with the unharvested tree, the fall of the apples and the enjoyment of their scent by many. If the prospects of the unharvested fill us with hopes of redemption, the results of the harvested fill us with horrors of a second fall. Thus, the contrast in the poem makes us feel uneasy with our annual harvests. The poet suggests a way out with his priestly admonitions, which have the force of a biblical commandment:

“May something go always unharvested

May much stay out of our stated plan.”

He also tells us about the merits of the unharvested in the last lines of the poem. The rhymes ‘left’ and ‘theft’ attract an allusion to the eating of the forbidden fruit which was actually an act of ‘theft’ because God ordered that of all the fruits, the fruit of the forbidden tree alone should be ‘left’ untouched, unharvested, and the fruit was plucked without His knowledge. The poet says we do not incur the charge of theft if we enjoy the smell of what is left. But are we leaving “apples or something unharvested” so that others may enjoy then? Are we desisting from our greedy harvests every year? etc., are the questions which force us out of our complacence with a jolt.

Thus, the poetry of Robert Frost has a universal appeal in raising and answering moral questions relating to the human behaviour. Frost views the human ignorance and the human failings with certain sympathy. He is not cynical or critical about those who cannot rise above the board. But he does not ignore their shortcomings, nor does he forgive them. He just sets them against the ideal images of themselves, which tease them until they improve themselves. Thus, if poetry has a social responsibility of making men better, Frost’s poetry can be said to have fulfilled the mission more than most other’s poetry has ever done so far.

Back