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Robert Frost, a la Shmoop: Nature Boy. The next time you're in the grocery store.
. . .try counting all the products that have the words "organic" or "natural" on them.
Oh, and you might want to wear comfortable shoes. . .
. . .since you're probably going to be there for awhile
Yep. We're definitely on a back-to-nature phase. . .
. . .something our friend, Robert Frost, would have appreciated.
One of America's greatest poets. . .
. . . Frost wrote a lot of poems about nature and rural life. . .
. . .which leads us to our question. Why did he so often use nature as a theme?
Well, he did own a farm for ten years. . .
. . .so maybe living out in the country inspired him. . .
. . . to write about settings that were comfortable and familiar
Even after he sold the farm and moved to London. . .
. . .he may have looked at life in the country. . .
. . .as simpler and more "real" than urban life.
Or maybe he kept going back to nature. . .
. . .because of all the beautiful imagery it provided.
Poets love that stuff, right? Maybe Frost just liked painting pretty pictures
with words. . .
. . .and snow was just snow. . .
. . . and swaying birches were just swaying birches.
Possibly. But what if he used nature as a metaphor for life?
Those woods don't sound quite as inviting now, do they?
You've got to admit, it's not too much of a
stretch. . .
. . .to think Frost might have used the harshness of nature. . .
. . .to point out how tough life could be. And he sure wouldn't have been the first writer.
. . .to use a metaphor. So, why did Frost write so often about nature?
Did he just feel more comfortable writing about rural settings. . .
. . .or did he think nature was a more worthy subject than urban life?
Was it all about creating visual imagery with words. . .
. . .or was nature a good stand-in for human struggles?
Shmoop amongst yourselves.