标题: The Poetry of Robert Frost - 书评 [打印本页] 作者: 门下书客 时间: 2013-5-5 17:16 标题: The Poetry of Robert Frost - 书评 This is the only comprehensive volume of Robert Frost's published verse; in it are the contents of all eleven of his individual books of poetry-from A Boy's Will (1913) to In the Clearing (1962). ...
书评内容会自动聚合在本帖中作者: Laaine 时间: 2013-8-28 09:02
一学期结束了，不用考试，写篇小论文就好~~
This poem is written by the American poet Robert Frost whose works are mostly concerned with nature. In this poem, he describes a little incident happening in a snowy evening. As a traveler, the poet is fascinated by the beautiful scene in the woods. He stops to enjoy it, but his mind urges him to go on, because there is still a long way ahead of him, an unfinished duty waiting for him. This poem is plain in words, but profound in meaning. Since it is full of symbolic constructs, it is thought- provoking, and the readers can get great fun in developing the subtext.
In the first stanza, the poet leads us to a piece of beautiful woods filled up with snow. As we all know that the woods are usually linked with myth, the unknown world, and the utmost tranquillity. We can guess that, in this poem, the poet takes the woods as the eternal life, the bliss, that is to say the Heaven. He is fed up with the routine duties, and wants to rest forever. The woods happens to provide an ideal place.
Then it comes to the snowy evening. “It is the darkest evening of the year.” The snow is cold and the evening dark, all of which indicate that the poet is depressed inside. His subconscious wants him to stop, but his “little horse” with the inspiring bells, which is actually a symbol of vitality, urges him to go. In the second stanza, the poet uses “frozen lake” to denote death. Why he transfers the embodiment of death from the beautiful “woods” to the deadly “frozen lake” is because the point of view has changed from the poet to the little horse.
In the third stanza, the little horse wonders why the poet stops when he should have go on. Only “the easy wind” and “downy flake” answer it with soft sweep. We can imagin the scene: the “downy flake” is so light and gentle that it flies in the soft wind. Thus we can get the idea: the poet’s answer is as slight and uncertain as the flakes, because he himself doesn’t know why he stops suddenly in the woods.
Toward the end, the poet comes back from the illusion. Though the woods are attractive, he must move on, because he has promise to keep. “The promise” could be an obligation or a goal. One can not die before fulfilling one’s dream. The poet uses “sleep” to represent death, just as we usually do.
In this poem, Robert Frost discusses the relation between mortal obligations and the eternal rest. One leaves no regrets after he dies, as long as one has reached his goal.