When I see birches bend to left and rightĪcross the lines of straighter darker trees, Hear the poem in Robert Frost’s own voice. Thanks to the birches playing muse to Frost, we have this charming poem that teaches us to look inside for happiness. In Fifty Poets: An American Auto Anthology, he remarked that if an ark (In Christian belief a giant lifeboat that housed one pair of earth’s living beings during the Great Flood) was sailing and Frost were allowed to choose a single plant on board, he would select the birch tree. Where your face burns and tickles with the cob websįrom a t wig’s having lashed across it open.Īll in all, Frost may have had a special corner for the Birch trees themselves. I t’s when I’m weary of considerations, AdvertisementsĪnd life is too much like a pathless wood Soon the sun’s warmth make s them shed cry stal shell s (Line 11)Ĭonsonance - Repetition of similar sounding consonant sounds in neighboring words. Sibilance - Hissing sounds that come from words with s, z, sh and zh.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish (Line 40) Advertisements Onomatopoeia - Words that mean what they sound.Īs the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Along with the beat in the words, Frost uses the sense of sound to add aural (relating to sound) texture to the poem. This gives the poem a free flowing tone, enhanced with the use of enjambment - a style where verses break into the next line without punctuation. The poem is chiefly written in blank verse- an unrhymed iambic pentameter. Structurally, Birches is a stichic - a poem with no stanza breaks. There’s an easygoing feel with a certain wistfulness, as the poet merges his current reality with his youthful memories. The poem becomes a dramatic monologue - a steady one-person talk to another. Advertisementsįrost speaks as a friend sharing his inner self, adopting a first person conversation style. It probably explains why the poet chose the theme of escaping to transcendence - a state of existence that is better than the normal one. Perhaps in his own way, the poem was Frost’s attempt to soothe in troubled times - telling us to embrace Life’s simple pleasures and find peace. Behind its simple charm, there is a world weariness that hints of the turmoil during that period, especially in the middle verses (Lines 11-17).
Birches, originally titled ‘Swinging on Birches’ was one of Frost’s early works published in 1916 - right in the middle of World War I.
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