SYMBOLIC IMAGERY IN ROBERT FROST’S POETRY

NAME : RAVI BHALIYAROLL NO : 24PAPER : THE AMERICAN LITERATUREM.A : SEM -3ENROLLMENT NO : 14101004YEAR : 2015-16EMAIL : ravibhaliya5@gmailcomSUBMITTED TO : SMT .S.B . GARDI

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI

BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

Introduction What is Symbolism? Stopping by woods… Fire and Ice Mending Wall Home Burial Design Gift outright Conclusion

Index

Critics say that Frost was a poet of Pastures and pain , Mountain and rivers , woods and garden , fruits and flowers , seeds and birds .

Frost’s best poetry exhibits the structure of symbolic poetry, much more Clearly than does of many a

modern poet

Clenath Brooke Points out..

Introduction

What is Symbolic Imagery

Symbolic imagery refers to images within an artistic work, often including novels, poems, films, and other works, which are symbolic in nature.

Imagery is the use of language or other facets of storytelling that appeal to the senses of a reader or audience, usually through descriptions of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings.

This type of imagery is often used in fiction and poetry to create a more dynamic scene for the reader, often by showing the reader what is going on rather than telling him or her what happens.

Symbolic imagery, however, is imagery that serves a symbolic purpose, rather than a strictly literal one.

What is symbolism

Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.

“ Symbolism means use of symbols like objects ,

character ,use of color to represents abstract idea or quality.

”

According to Oxford Dictionary

• Here woods are symbolizes as contrast to civilization. Through this poem woods can be categorized as a symbol of death

• The most significant symbol in the poem “stopping by woods on a snowy Evening” would be woods.

• The woods may symbolize temptations in life, from a view they seem mysterious beauty.

• And some are tempted to stay and enjoy the view, but the traveler chooses to continue his journey through life to reach his destination, which should be our goals in life too.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy evening

Woods

“And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”

Here this line suggests that Death is the ultimate reality of the life but before that one has some duty to fulfill and the words like “miles to go” indicates that there are so many works and responsibility and one has to compete. So here “sleep” symbolizes the death.

Death is not the greatest loss in life .The greatest loss of it what dies inside us while we live.

Nature: In this poem, nature is the symbol and the snow is a symbol of coolness, while frozen lake is a symbol of the death and chillness of life.

Horse: In this poem Robert Frost takes Horse as a symbol, which symbolizes as a soul of the poet.

Village: Village is symbolized here as society and civilization

Fire and Ice Fire: Warmth, Emotions, DesireIce: Coldness, Dryness, Hatred

Both are extremes and these extremes lead towards destruction.

Fire symbolize for desire, and ice symbolizes here for hate.

Mending Wall

This poem has literal and hidden meaning, which symbolizes religious, political and economic conflict, national, religious, racial and prejudices which divide man from man and come in the way of mutual understanding and harmonious relationship.

“Good fences make good neighbors”

So this line is symbolized with an old man his young neighbor, the two neighbors represent the problem between traditional and modernity.

Young

Aged Tradition

Modernity

Home Burial

So here this poem can be read as a tragic double entendre. The mother in this poem can’t forget that her husband himself dug the grave of their buried child. She thinks her husband a uncaring person. The memory of the child has separated her from her husband. The husband is a simple man and is baffled by the excessiveness of her sorrow.

Home Burial symbolizes: Strain, Isolation, and Alienation

1. The death of a young child2. The death of a marriage/ Relationship

Design In this poem the poet believes that

there is a power that governs things that occurs, some unknown power weaves such appealing “designs of darkness”. But in the end the poet admits possibility that there is no design or plans that coming together,

of the white spider, white flower and Moth So at last Robert Frost tells and gives

nature as a symbol a kind of mother

MothSpiderFlower

‘The Gift Outright’

This poem ‘The Gift Outright’ symbolizes Religion. Therefore, this poem begins with an account of the coming of the British colonist in America. So they become the colonials of America and called our

country as their motherland. They lacked the patriotic feeling for the land they lived in. they believed in possession but not in belongingness.

Here in this poem the patriotic feeling for the country of an individual is observed or rather than in very simple way.