Robert Frost Modern Poet

 Robert Frost highlights the problems faced by the modern man through his poems. Discuss with reference to Stopping by Woods and The Road not taken.

Robert Frost is an American poet (1873-1963). He lived in the United States. He has written so many poems. Some of them are “Out! Out, Mending Wall, Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods, After Apple-Picking, My Butterfly, and A Minor Bird.” He was awarded a gold medal for his poetry from the American Academy of Arts.  We have studied two poems in our anthology. They are “Stopping by Woods and Road Not Taken”. Frost depicts the problems, which have been faced by modern man through these two poems. I am going to discuss those issues as follows:

First, I have selected the poem, “Stopping by Woods…” written by Robert frost for my discussion. This poem has been written to depict the conflict between the material life and spiritual life of a modern man.

“"But I have promises to keep…”, depicts the boundaries and limits in which human beings pass their lives, and they do not allow them to feel the beauty of nature. Although the speaker wants to stop and see the beauty of nature, he is unable to do so as he has to fulfill more responsibilities. Thus, the poet wants to say that the modern man has no time to stay in that beautiful place and enjoy its natural beauty. This is a common problem today for many human beings. Their lives have become mechanical and artificial.

“He will not see me stopping here.”  This line refers to the owner of the forest, who is not interested in its natural beauty. The owner of this wood doesn't want to see the beauty of this land. He may use this wood for earning money only. Robert Frost wants to emphasize that the modern man fails to admire the aesthetic value of  things. He is interested only in a materialistic world. Even the horse hates to stay there. It also does not feel the aesthetic value of this beautiful forest as the owner of the woods.

The the poem, Road Not Taken has also been written by Robert Frost to highlight the nature of the modern man.

“I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

 

Here, it is clear that the poet has chosen the road which was used by a few people. It is really a big challenge. By selecting this road, he has really faced a challenge. It is not only a challenge but also a risk. We must admire such people. However, such people have to face many problems as it is a new experience. Anyway, at the end, he seems to be suffering. Hence, as intellectual people, we have to think twice before arriving at such a decision. The man in modern society behaves like this. He usually takes decisions without thinking deeply. He is not far-sighted and takes decisions and later he has to suffer a lot.

In conclusion, it is obvious that the modern man seems to have some weaknesses, which adversely affect his life. He finds it difficult to find time for entertaining himself since he is frequently busy with his day-to-day activities as we have discussed earlier. He is also greedy for money and property. It is the other weakness he has in his life. Moreover, he is not a good decision-maker. He is narrow-minded and fails to predict what will happen next.