Early Twentieth Century - Robert Frost (1874-1963)

"I'm always saying something that's just

the edge of something more." - RF

Employing the plain speech of rural New Englanders, Frost used the short traditional forms of lyric and narrative. As a nature poet, he belongs to the

romantic tradition of Wordsworth and Emerson. Although Frost's nature has obvious simplicity, he probes an indifferent universe with its mysteries of darkness and irrationality.

The central theme of Wordsworth’s lyric: the union of mind and external reality.

The central theme of Frost’s lyric: the contrast between man and nature.

Study questions:

1.After we learn the poems “Departmental”, “The Most of It” , read them again and again and discuss the limitations and isolation of the individual in either a social or natural environment, plus the related theme of how difficult it is for the self to understand existence. 2. What are the relationships between humanity and nature explored in Frost's poems?

"The Most of It”: Here the poet shows us the gulf separating man from nature clearly, and this is probably why the poem has been generally ignored. The picture he presents is certainly not cheerful, much less pretty. It is impressive. It demonstrates how exalted an idea of the human mind and how awesome a view of reality the contrast between man and nature expresses.

Some morning from the boulder-broken beach

He would cry out on life, that what it wants

Is not its own love back in copy speech,

But counter-love, original response.

He thought he kept the universe alone; For all the voice in answer he could wake

Was but the mocking echo of his own From some tree-hidden cliff across the lake.

(fig.) cause sth. To stir or come to life

The first four lines give us such an image -- a man alone staying somewhere facing a tree-surrounded lake. He thought nature was his at the moment, as no other human being there to share the view with him. He owned the nature complete by himself. He was very happy and cry out and he receives the echo of his own voice.

Lines 4 –8 give a more accurate explanation of the time and place the venture took place as well as the content of the crying. He posed some questions for nature and hoped nature could give its answer but not just echo his voice. He loved nature and wished to get the same love from nature in return. We can imagine that the questions may be that “Do you love man? We love you.” “Do you protect all the creature?” “Do you want to be man’s good friend?” “What your attitudes toward life in the world?” and so on.

And nothing ever came of what he cried Unless it was the embodiment that crashed In the cliff's talus on the other side,

And then in the far distant water splashed,

But after a time allowed for it to swim,

Instead of proving human when it neared

And someone else additional to him,

As a great buck it powerfully appeared,

Pushing the crumpled water up ahead,

And landed pouring like a waterfall,

Embodiment:A tangible or visible form of an idea, quality or feeling

Tablus:Sloping bank of the rock fragments at the foot of a cliff

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Take into consideration

Press or crush into folds or creases/ swim against the waves ahead of him

And stumbled through the rocks with horny tread,

And forced the underbrush - and that was all. 4

Appreciation:There is pathos in this poem but something close to tragedy too. The man's search for a sign of love from nature may be foolish and sentimental to a degree, yet he is wise enough to realize that what he wants is “counter-love, original response” rather than a mere

Hard and rough steps

reflection of his own love. It takes a certain toughness( courage) to see this, to hold out for the real thing.

( to continue to demand( a particular thing) refusing to accept what has been offered 坚持非要…不可 )

And the real thing when it comes is so remote from his desires that he cannot recognize it. The magnificent buck which swims toward him from across the lake is "the most of it" - all that nature can give. Here shows the sentiment of man's isolation, and in this sense the poem arouses kind

of sad feeling or disappointment. On the other hand, we see part of man's true nature – dependence, fear of isolation. “It” merely symbolizes the impersonal force of matter, and his blindness to it is really a character of his spiritual strength. And as the man in the poem transcends nature through ignorance – he ignores what nature’s response to his questions

on life or his love to nature and continue to demand a desirable or satisfactory answer. The speaker also transcends it through knowledge. He recognizes the meaning of the buck; he sees that "that was all" nature could give. He is able to look at the grim reality of nature, to recognize its remoteness and inhumanity, and at the same time to admire its magnificent strength embodied by the great buck.

The vision of the great buck as he "stumbled through the rocks with horny tread,/ And forced the underbrush" reveals not only nature, but the superiority of the human mind which can see it for what it is and no more.

Line9-20 The man in the poem didn’t receive any answer from the nature but something visible seemed to be the representative/ ambassador of nature that made the sound of crash “in the cliff’s talus on the other side”; and then the tangible form jumped into water to swim across the lake, approaching this bank. When it was near the man in the poem, he recognized it to be male dear. The

dear was very big and strong. When it got on the bank, the water came off his body like the pouring of Waterfall. He walked unsteadily through the rocks with hard and rough steps, headed for the underbrush, forced it to make way for him and disappeared in it. That was all the nature could give.

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