Frost’s attitude is ambivalent. He draws his theme from Nature and the countryside and seems to be imbibed with a deep love of Nature. The rhythms of country life hold him spell bound. But he never gives us an artificial picture of country life seen from a library. On the other hand, he describes Nature from his own experience. He is a typical “country man” in his descriptions of Nature. In “Birches” he recalls the favourite leisure time activity of rural New England children. His boyhood delight in swinging on the birches suggests to him some of the fundamental problems about life. Though the landscape is described with scientific accuracy, the human element is not brushed off too lightly. The poet recalls the experiences of childhood and philosophizes on it; the concluding lines of the poem move towards an understanding and wisdom arrived at through a slow contemplation of a simple game. Nature is thus, not a means of escape from the drab realities of life, but the source of joy and wisdom to Frost, the Poet.
00215--What is Robert Frost’s attitude to Nature in “Birches”? [English Literature free notes]
Frost’s attitude is ambivalent. He draws his theme from Nature and the countryside and seems to be imbibed with a deep love of Nature. The rhythms of country life hold him spell bound. But he never gives us an artificial picture of country life seen from a library. On the other hand, he describes Nature from his own experience. He is a typical “country man” in his descriptions of Nature. In “Birches” he recalls the favourite leisure time activity of rural New England children. His boyhood delight in swinging on the birches suggests to him some of the fundamental problems about life. Though the landscape is described with scientific accuracy, the human element is not brushed off too lightly. The poet recalls the experiences of childhood and philosophizes on it; the concluding lines of the poem move towards an understanding and wisdom arrived at through a slow contemplation of a simple game. Nature is thus, not a means of escape from the drab realities of life, but the source of joy and wisdom to Frost, the Poet.
