Hopkins

Haley Hopkins

Mr. David Schloss

ENG 123

8 October 2014

Poetry Analysis Essay: Frost, Dickinson, and Robinson

Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Edwin Arlington Robinson are three well-

known poets, but their writing became famous for different reasons. Their stylistic and

word choices, underlying themes, and general topics in their poetry all create various

pieces that are not only remembered individually, but allowed them to garner fame and

respect.

One of Roberts’ most popular poems is, arguably, The Mending Wall. It is written

in blank verse and maintains five syllables per line. The individual words do not contain

many syllables so as to make the piece sound conversational. In the opening lines,

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / That sends the frozen-ground-swell under

it” (212), there are no more than two syllables in a word. The poem itself, which centers

on the narrator arguing with his neighbor over a wall that they build between their houses

every year, ends in ambiguity. The final line of the poem, “He says again, ‘Good fences

make good neighbors,’” (213), shows the that the neighbor, who has now repeated his

mantra, is probably not going to change his mind – but this is just an assumption. Frost

does not include a response from the narrator, making readers wonder if he has given up

on the idea of removing the wall. The poem also raises questions about the necessity of

boundaries. Do fences really make good neighbors? What about a barrier makes one a

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better person? Frost leaves these questions open to interpretation as well. Like many of

his poems, The Mending Wall also seems to be a commentary on the process of creation,

and how it can be either positive or negative depending on what is being done and who is

the creator (or destroyer). Another poem of Frost’s that is widely popular is The Road Not

Taken. This piece tends to be misinterpreted due to its almost upbeat ABAAB rhyme

scheme. Many believe Frost is advising readers to “take the road less traveled”; in other

words, the message of this poem is thought to be, “be different!” However, in the lines,

“And both that morning equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black” (224), it is

made clear that neither road was less traveled than the other. Therefore, the narrator is

simply taking a chance on whichever path he chooses, as both appear to be the same. The

“fork in the road” dilemma is an advocate for the “choice versus chance” theme. In the

final stanza, the narrator notes “with a sigh” (223) that when retelling the story of the

moment of his choosing a path, he will say that he “took the one less traveled by” (223),

noting that it will have “made all the difference” (223). The tone of the piece is now more

of a solemn one, and the narrator is almost blatantly stating that he is unsatisfied with not

being able to choose to be different reality, and so, when he retells the story, he will have

a more inspiring ending – the one he wishes could be true.

Emily Dickinson is known for writing poems that are similar in some ways, but

are powerful in what they convey. In her poem, Because I Could Not Stop For Death,”

she presents Death as a man in the opening lines, “Because I could not stop for Death – /

He kindly stopped for me” (179). This makes the concept of death masculine. Dickinson

also uses a carriage as a symbol for the final transition into death: “The carriage held but

just Ourselves - / and Immortality” (179). A fan of capitalization, Dickinson does not

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stray from her normalcy by capitalizing “Ourselves” and “Immortality.” This causes

readers to do two things: stop and focus on what is being capitalized, and personify, in

the case of Immortality. The capitalization also adds importance to whichever words

Dickinson deems to be notable. Another symbol in this poem is the “Setting Sun” (179),

which is a common symbol for death that Dickinson makes even more obvious by

alliterating with “setting” and capitalizing. Though death is the topic of the poem, the

tone isn’t gloomy; Dickinson paints death as a carriage ride into the sunset. In another of

Dickinson’s poems, Much Madness is divines Sense,” there is no solid form or rhyme

scheme, which parallels the poem’s theme of madness being a good thing. The first line –

and title – seems paradoxical, as madness and divinest sense do not seem to equate.

However, Dickinson goes on to assert that “To a discerning Eye - / Much Sense – the

starkest Madness – “Tis the Majority” (169). The Eye, which is a symbol for clarity, is a

common one in many poems, but Dickinson uses it to assert that those who see clearly

are also those who are mad. She laments those who are “handled with a Chain” (169) –

capitalizing Chain to show its importance and power – for being mad, as they are the

ones who are the most sane.

Edward Arlington Robinson is master of poems that copy the style of Edgar Lee

Masters’ Spoon River Anthology poems; that is, poems that tell a short story but still have

a deeper meaning. In his poem Richard Cory, Robinson tells the story of a man who was

clearly not as happy as others thought him to be. He “was a gentleman from sole to

crown” (196) and “glittered when he walked” (196). He was “rich – yes, richer than a

king…” (196) and everyone wanted to be “in his place” (196). And so, what a shock it

was to the community when “one calm summer night,” Richard Cory “Went home and

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put a bullet through.” With this final line, Robinson asserts that not everyone is how we

perceive them to be, money does not equate to happiness, and we should not judge others

solely based on their appearances. The poem, which maintains an ABAB rhyme scheme,

exudes irony in that those in Richard Cory’s community wished to be like him, when he

was very clearly not someone whose place you would want to take. In Robinson’s

Miniver Cheevy, another man with an unfortunate life is examined. Miniver is a misfit

man who is stuck in the past – a past he was never a part of. Robinson examines the

theme of dreams versus reality as Miniver, a “child of scorn” (197), “sighed for what was

not” (197). Miniver dreams of “Thebes and Camelot, / and Priam’s neighbors”, all of

whom lived in the distant past. He loathes the time period he lives in and misses “the

mediaeval grace / Of iron clothing” (198). Miniver misses something he never had, which

shows how desperately he wants to be a part of the past. At the end of the poem, Miniver

chalks his being born in the wrong time period up to “fate” (198) and continues

“drinking” (198). This implies that Miniver will never change his ways, and his life will

be a sad one – which ends the narrative on a gloomy note.

The works of Frost, Dickinson, and Robinson may be different when analyzed

individually, but as poems, they all have a commonality: they expertly put into words

what many cannot.

Works Cited

Lehman, David. The Oxford Book of American Poetry. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

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