Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen - symbols and imagery
Uploaded by suji on Oct 22, 2001
Poetry is most commonly known as expressing oneself through the art of writing. There are many techniques poets use to make their poem a success. Two of these techniques are imagery and symbols. Comprehension of symbols when they are by themselves is not easy; when put with their poem they come alive. Symbols allow us, as readers, to expand the meaning of the poem much further than words can take us. Along with symbols, imagery creates a whole world that takes us on the journey the writer intended. Two poets who create this world wonderfully are Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen.
Robert Frost’s poems are quite simple, dealing with everyday situations and emotions, yet taking them to another level of exploration. He looks at aspects of nature and then converts them into symbols to use in his poems, thus making them completely relevant to our everyday lives and easy to make sense of.
If we look at “Tree at My Window”, the tree is symbolising a constant throughout the days. You can easily picture the leaves of the tree blowing gently just outside the window, offering some comfort at troubled times. The tree could represent a lover, friend or relative who will always be there for him and a barrier will never form between them, “But never let there be a curtain drawn Between you and me.” Frost looks at the similarities between himself and the tree and views fate as a person or god or Mother Nature. Another poet who comes to mind with similar emotional poems, is William Blake. A good example of his emotional exploration is, “A Poison Tree”, where he studies his anger towards his enemy, and views that anger as a poison tree.
In “After Apple-Picking”, there is another symbol derived from nature. In the beginning of the poem, Frost tells of “a barrel that I didn’t fill Beside it, and there maybe two or three apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.”. This could be understood as a part of life that Frost missed out on, some experience that passed him by. Later he says, “Magnified apples appear and disappear”. perhaps telling us of opportunities that come and go, big or small. I find the image of a barrel not quite full fits perfectly. A life not quite complete, but not really missing anything either.
“The Road Not Taken” writes, “two roads diverging in a yellow...