Robert Frost was a traditional American poet. Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. At the age of eleven, he moved to New England; during his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he became interested in reading and writing poetry. He enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892 but dropped out after only one term and later enrolled at Harvard, though he never earned a formal degree.
Frost had several odd jobs before becoming a poet: farmer, teacher at Pinkerton Academy and at the state normal school in Plymouth, cobbler, and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. In 1895, Frost married Elinor Miriam White; in 1912, they moved to New England because their farm in New Hampshire failed. His wife was a major inspiration in his poetry until she died in 1938.Robert Frost, the traditional American Poet, expresses his paganist beliefs throughout his poetry. One who is pagan is a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.
( http://dictionary.reference.com/) Frost, being a person who was not Christian, expresses his paganism throughout many of his poems. There are three poems particularly that expresses his paganist views: "Birches", "After Apple Picking", and "Desert Places". Both poems, “After Apple-Picking” and “Birches”, does not focus on the Christian interest in the after-life but rather more focus on the interests in things native to New England."Birches", first published in the Atlantic Monthly in August of 1915, is one of Robert Frost’s most popular poems.
Frost’s paganist views are expressed throughout this poem. “You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen” (L13), which evidences that Frost had lost his Christian faith. Heaven is the afterlife to all Christians, which would never fail to exist. Frost also implies, “Earth’s the right place for love; I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
” (L52-53), which indicates that he is not a Christian because he shows the reader that he is perfectly fine living on Earth, and any Christian knows that heaven is a much better place than Earth.All Christians strive to make it to heaven; all Christians concentrate to live their lives right, through faith. If Robert Frost were Christian, he would focus more on his afterlife and forget about his life on Earth. Christians would want to be in Heaven walking on the streets of gold where there are no worries, nothing but love and happiness. Another indication he suggests is that, “Climb black braches . .
. set me down again,” (L56-57) which implies that he is only interested with his earthly concerns. Robert Frost’s poem, “Birches”, is filled with quotes that suggest his paganist views.Like “Birches”, Frost’s poem "After Apple Picking", focuses more on the interests of native things to New England. “After Apple-Picking” was published in May of 1914, introduces the concept of heaven in the first sentence, “My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree toward heaven still.
" (L 1-2) Frost is implying that he is getting closer to the end of his life and is climbing toward heaven. Another suggestion that he indicates is that, “And there is a barrel that I didn’t fill Beside it and there may be two or three apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.” This poem is about life and its choices; Frost displays a sense of regret when he impies, “barrels I didn’t fill.” Being more concerned about his mortal life, Robert Frost lost his train of thought on his afterlife. "For I have had too much of apple-picking.
" perhaps meant he was so close to the end of his life that he was done with sinning. This poem has the total opposite theme of the Bible story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.In “Desert Places”, where Robert Frost writes "I found a dimpled spider fat and white, on a white heal-all holding up a moth like a white piece of rig in satin cloth," (L1-3) implies that he is a pagan. Frost indicates elements in nature of death and life. For Frost, the whiteness also symbolized good against evil, light against dark.
However, white shows dirt, and is therefore more difficult to keep clean than other colors. (http://www.infoplease.com/ ) Frost uses white to symbolize the dirt/sin he had done in his life. “Assorted characters of death and blight," (L4) the order is reversed because blight comes before death, but he switched it to emphasize the word death.
Another example of his paganism is in this question, "What but design of darkness to appall?" (L 13-14) Frost is making fun at God; why would he take so much time and effort in details so small when he had bigger things to deal with? This shows he is a true pagan because any Christian would not make fun of God!The poems “Birches”, “After Apple Picking”, and “Desert Places” written by Robert Frost have more than enough examples to support my belief that Frost is a pagan. He never showed in any of these poems a belief in God just a total rejection of this concept. The quotes provided enough support to help understand his paganism. Although I find poetry challenging to interpret, there were numerous examples to help support my belief that Frost is a pagan.
