An Old Man’s Winter Night
An Old Man’s Winter Night by Robert Frost All out-of-doors looked darkly in at him Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, That gathers on the pane In empty rooms. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand. What kept him from remembering what it was That brought him to that creaking room was age. He stood with barrels round him”at a loss. And having scared the cellar under him In clomping there, he scared it once again In clomping off;”and scared the outer night, Which has Its sounds, familiar, like the roar Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so Ilke beating on a box. A light he was to no one but himself Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what, A quiet light, and then not even that. He consigned to the moon”such as she was, So late-arising”to the broken moon As better than the sun in any case For such a charge, his snow upon the roof, His icicles along the wall to keep; And slept. The log that shifted with a Jolt Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted, And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept. One aged man”one man”can’t keep a house, A farm, a countryside, or If he can,
It’s thus he does it of a winter night. An Old Man’s Winter Night is written by the American poet Robert Frost in 1916. He went through a lot of tragedies during the whole life. After experiencing the death his mother, his grandfather and his 2 children, the sense of helpness inevitably worked to shape and color the views of life’s possibilities. It’s unforeseeable for Frost to predict what will happen tomorrow so that he was called a poet who terrifies”. That’s why the peotry is a mix of the calm and rural.
The peaceful surface with an underlying darkness is an uncommon feature in this poetry. Symbolism Forst is representative of cold winter, “separate stars” showing hope and comfort of the mysterious and dangerous outer world at night. “gathers on the pane”lmpersonate the forst to make the atmosphere warmer and more quiet. “cellar”, “branches”, “log fired”create some scaring sounds In the winter’s night to emphasize the peaceful and lonely environment. The dark colours of these ugly and hard images snow tne repressed emotions. lamp” “Tire” make Teel warm ana peaceTul, Drlng llgnt to the dark and cold night to eliminate the feeling of scare. The poet tells us how he as “a light for no one but himself”, yet again confirms how isolated he is. Frost uses many different literary devices throughout the poem. Imagery which appeals to our sight, touch and hearing senses. Frost has used Imagery such as “In clomping there, he scared it once again” which appeals to our touch because you can almost feel how he has stomped the floor to try and frighten off the unknown.
He has appealed to our hearing senses by using personification, “like the roar of trees” lets you almost hear how the trees were thrashing around on the cold winter night. Using contraries and ontradictions is another characteristic of this poetry. For example, the scaring sounds and the peaceful and quiet atmosphere make the old man feel more threaten and lonely. The warm light and fire in the room is on the contrary to the dark and cold winter to convey the scare of the unknown outer world of the old man. Also, Frost determinde to continue his old syle of using common, everday speech.
It is simple to understand the superficial meaning of his poetry instead of the underlying theme. The poetry tells that an old man stands alone in his house in the middle of winter. His memory and legs crippled by old age ambles around his house without remembering who he was or even what he was doing. At one point, he becomes frightened by the cellar beneath his feet and the dark night outside, and he stomps his feet loudly to frighten away the unknown. Eventually the old man dozes in front of the fire, after being disturbed by a shifting log, falls into a deeper sleep.
The rural images like “forst” “cellar” “tree” “lamp” “moon” to convey his emotion of scaring and isolation. An Old Man’s Winter Night creates a concrete view ofa lonely and amnesiac old man in the wooden house. I can see an old man who is trying to get away from the scaring environment and finally he succeed in sleeping beside the warm fire. An Old Man’s Winter Night deals with the predicament of an old man who is dying on a cold winter’s night. From the title of this poem, the reader might expect a warm and cozy narrative about an old man in front of a crackling fire.
Frost denies this comforting expectation and instead creates a haunting narrative. What is the most scaring point is that the old man has lost his memory and it seems nonsense to exist in this world. But he still keep a house, a farm in the countryside. As to the emotion author wants to express, I think, it’s relative to the life story of him. At that time, he still didn’t sell his farm and enjoyed the life being a farmer in the countryside. However, the death of his children make him to imagine the future life in his old age.
He is afraid that people will forget him and he will die by himself without accompanying by his children. This kind of depressed emotion influence the poem. The readers will find a poor old man struggling to prove his value to live. From my perspective, I feel merciful to the old man. He was place at the position of finding o clues to who and where he is. Maybe he is in his home but he cannot find the sense of belonging and he would like to risk for the dangers. He absolutely knows that the outer night is dangerous and he still goes out and talk to the moon.
I can feel the old man is who really wants to get cares and love from other people but he cannot know what is going on. He is representative of the Frost and they are all want to escape from the scare of death and company. Obviously we can see from the poem, Frost treasured his country life and this kind of life really give him sparks in wrltlng poems mos OITTerent Trom tneme 0T otner Frosts poems, tney focus on the isolation from the modern society, on the contrary, this poem doesn’s want to express this kind of meaning.
References
- http://www.studymode.com/essays/An-Old-Man’s-Winter-Night-Analysis-1602199.html
- http://www.gradesaver.com/the-poetry-of-robert-frost
- http://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/a_f/frost/frost.htm
- http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/oldman.htm
- http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/A_f/frost/fireice.htm
