During the late 19th century into the 20th century, the world went through many momentous events, such as two World Wars and the Great Depression. Robert Frost was the one of the most famous poets of the 20th century. He lived during a time when America and the world were experiencing events that changed the way people lived; it was also a period when writers were moving into new forms of experience; one of these was the movement toward Modernist writing. Frost was born in the late 19th century and spent 40 years of his life as a “normal” person, working in a variety of jobs, everything from being a chicken farmer to a school teacher at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire. In 1912, he moved his family to England in the hopes of advancing his career as a poet. While there, he was actually able to publish two volumes of verse, but returned to the United States in 1915 and to being a poet-teacher and summer farmer.
Frost became well known and popular because of his poems. And, even though his stories contain sadness, many readers love his writing style, “Robert Frost favored traditional devices- blank verse, rhyme, narrative, the sonnet form, and his pitiless depiction of a cruel natural universe marks him as a peculiarly modern figure who is sometimes misread as a genial Yankee sage” (Barbour 94). Barbour explains that Frost’s writing style was related to the Modernist time period. “If the reader takes a brief but incisive look into the actual life of Frost, viewing the hardships, disappointments, fears, and failings of the man Frost, then the poet Frost will better be understood as a person capable of versifying about darker elements of the human condition” (Tom 12). Because of Frost’s use of dark elements, his description of people without God, and his unique and interesting style, he establish himself as a Modernist writer.
Our writers can help you with any type of essay. For any subject
Order now
Modernist literature contains many dark elements. Frost was a poet that wrote about the unhappinesses and barriers of human life. “Several psychological theoreticians were to also fundamentally alter the way that modern man viewed his own internal reality, an unexplored heart of darkness” (Wolfson 15). Frost’s poems contain aspects of darkness which look like types of depression of the human spirit. Firstly in Frost’s “God’s Garden,” the poem mainly compares good and evil. Starting with “God made a beatous garden” which same the bible story of the Garden of Eden, where the humanity are following God at that time, “Then came another master/ Who did not love mankind/ And planted on the pathway/ Gold flowers for them to find” (Frost) which is pointing out the evil in the world when Adam and Eve takes the fruit, and it also points out the falls of mankind. It caused the pain and suffering while God removed them out of the Garden, In this poem is contained a dark element such as “Lost, helpless and alone.” By the quote of Robert Frost in God’s Garden, “Quite hit the thorns of avarice/That poison blood and bone” which also has dark elements in it. Frost emphasizes that the world is cold and makes a person feel alone, “Frost views man as being all alone in a seemingly unfeeling and unresponsive universe” (Tom 16). Secondly in “the birds do thus” Frost also uses dark elements. “To have you soon; I gave away” (Frost) and this mainly talks about his lost of love, but he is not giving up on his life, “the unhappy days; I choose to sleep.” Through the verse the reader could discover that Frost found his way to walk out of the shadow. “The bird do thus” Frost used dark element and briefly describes the dark “Life’s not so short/ I care to keep/The unhappy days;I choose to sleep.” He cherish his life, when it is a unhappy day he choose to sleep. Thirdly in “my butterfly” Frost used a very gothic way which will use dark element to write the poem. “Thine emulous fond flowers are dead/And the daft sun-assaulter, he” this verse is a parallel between the mourning of death and the speaker himself, In this verse the flower are meaning to his child, and saying that the lost of his child. “withered leaves” and “broken wings” are also the dark element in the poem by using the leaves and the wings draw out the sadness atmosphere.
The second element that Frost employs in modernist literature is telling how dark the world is without God. “. . . modernist literature is characterized by certain themes, the genre looks at the idea of meaning in modern times and of a world without God”(Lauren 34). Frost’s link between his religious views and his poem is disconnected. Nealon said “Scholars say the materials – officially called the Victor E. Reichert Robert Frost Collection — could provide an important, missing link between Frost’s poetry and his view of religion, which has been the subject of debate for decades.”(Nealon 15). Furthermore, all the information about religion in Frost’s poems is unclear. For example, in “God’s Garden”, the poem that is mentioned above, there is a comparison of good and evil. Frost talks about God guiding people to the heaven and not getting lost in the dark, but he does not mention that he has a Christian faith in God. “Frost’s writing is often critical of religion. He is skeptical about God, frequently presenting agnostic views because he is uncertain and untrusting, and is slightly more apt to embrace scientific approaches to existence”(Fagan 369). He is telling the reader that he is not showing himself as a believer. Otherwise, from the verse that is from Frost’s poem, “”I didn’t go to church, but I like to look in the window””, the speaker can be telling the reader that he doesn’t go to church or praise God at all.
In “Ghost House,” written by Frost; in the poem he wrote “I dwell in a lonely house I know; That vanished many a summer ago” In this case the speaker used “dwell” in the “lonely house” is meaning a house is no more a house/ Upon a farm that is no more a farm, he uses a metaphor to show the reader that the house is empty and makes speaker feel lonely. From that, the reader also can draw from the information in it that the speaker is not a believer, because he has no God in his heart and that is why he feels lonely; the character in Frost’s poem is not with God. In “The Road Not Taken” starting with “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/And sorry I could not travel both” speaks out that everyone has to face to pick a road to keep going on, where the religion view could be found in the poem that the speaker has to pick a road that either following God or not. “Then took the other, as just as fair/ And having perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear/ Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same” it points out that the speaker took the path that is unusually taken, meanwhile it points out that the speaker is not with God because the speaker picks the road that is unusually taken which is the road that God did not guide people to. The speaker tries to be unique and not follow crowd.
Frost’s unique and interesting writing skill establishes him as a modernist writer;.“The speaker of modernist poems characteristically wrestles with the fundamental question of “self,” often feeling fragmented and alienated from the world around him.”(EDSITEment) In the “The Road Not Taken,” the speaker says: “ two roads diverged in a yellow wood/ And sorry I could not travel both/ And be one traveler, long I stood” the experience that the speaker shows is that everyone has to make a choice for the future. “The most salient features of American modernism are a direct presentation of experience, economical use of language, symbolism and an informal, colloquial style”(Bloom 13). Meanwhile the verse in Frost’s poem shows the basic style of the Modernism and the relationship with Robert Frost. “the poet Daniel Hoffman says Frost’s early work enabled him to say out loud the sources of its own delight in the world” (Fagan 83) which is meaning that the author was trying to spread out his own idea of the world by using the influence of the poem. Furthermore, also challenges the reader’s analysis ability, based on the concept of “The Road Not Taken.” Frost is challenging the reader in how they will think about “making choices” in their life. “Birches” is one of the most famous blank verse poem that created by Frost, the theme of the poem is desire to dream and contrast of dreams and reality, and the main idea of the poem is that Frost is taking some sad thing to making it positive, where the poem shows lots of love, “Birches explores the idea of human existence and the limits we can go to as creative, loving beings.”(Spacey)
Furthermore, the starting verse “when I see birches bend left and right”, it shows two direction that the poem, which reflect to the theme of the poem where it shows the contract of dream and reality, then following the verse in the poem, “I like to think some boy’s been swinging them./But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay/As ice-storms do.” By using the ice-storm as an example, the ice-storm always stands for dangerous, deadly, etc. By going through the timeline of the world, the poem is created during the post WWI, and the storm is reflecting to the war, which is also deadly and dangerous. And pointing out the reality is that the lost of many love in the war. “Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells/ Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—/ Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away/ You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen” where it shows the image of the war on the battlefield. “I’d like to get away from earth awhile/ And then come back to it and begin over./ May no fate willfully misunderstand me/ And half grant what I wish and snatch me away/ Not to return.” the verse shows Frost is trying to escape the world for a while and then come back to begin over, it shows the difference between adulthood and childhood, the boy in the poem is enjoying his life, but in adulthood, it shows he wanna escape the world and begin the life again, which reflect to the reality where he could go somewhere and forget about the war.
In conclusion, Robert Frost use of dark elements, description of people without God, and unique and interesting style established himself as a Modernist writer, in the dark element he shows the darkness in the world, Frost also use his life experience to describe the world without God, and use interesting writing skill that compare his poem to the real world, which also could challenge the reader’s thinking aspet, Frost is a interesting Modernist writer that we shall all enjoy his poem and remember him.
Work Cited
Bloom, Harold. “American modernist poets” Ed. Harold Bloom, Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2011.
Barbour, Scott. “American Modernism” Ed. Scott Barbour, Greenhaven Press, 1999, c2000.
Bloom, Harold. “Robert Frost” Ed. Harold, Bloom’s modern critical views, Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2011
EDSITEment, “Introduction to Modernist poetry” https://edsitement.neh.gov/curriculum-unit/introduction-modernist-poetry
Frost, Robert. “Selected Poems of Robert Frost.” Ed. Harold Bloom, Gramercy Books, 1992
Fagan, Deirdre. “Critical companion to Robert Frost.” Facts on File, [2007].
Hire ,C. Lauren, “Modernism in Literature as a Game”, Oxford, England, United Kingdom, 2010
https://www.scripted.com/writing-samples/modernism-in-literature-as-a-genre
Koontz, Tom, “Aspects of darkness in the poetry of Robert Frost” Ball State University, 1939
http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/handle/178095
Nealon, Cory, “Rare Collection of Robert Frost Materials Emerges, Could Shed Light on
Poet’s Religious Views” ,BUFFALO, N.Y, January 18, 2013 http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2013/01/015.html
Spacey, Andrew, “Analysis of Poem Birches by Robert Frost”, Norton Anthology, Norton, 2005
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-Of-Poem-Birches-by-Robert-Frost
The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism
In Max Weber’s work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he attempts to discern a reason why Protestants continuously find themselves with far more wealth than their Catholic counterparts. In part one, Weber will attempt to formulate a reason as to why this observed phenomenon occurs, by looking at key differences between Protestants and Catholics, capitalism, and Martin Luther’s key idea of a calling that is absent in the totality of Catholicism.
Weber starts chapter one of his work by stating his argument that Protestants are more likely to be higher skilled workers compared to Catholics. He follows this by exploring the various reasons this observation may have come into being over time. On page 62, Weber begins to discuss possibilities for this economic disparity. The fact that Protestants have had a greater amount of wealth throughout history and that they pass it down more effectively is given as one possible reason why they are more successful than Catholics. Weber also observes that Catholic and Protestant parents have their children participate in different types of education, with Protestants more focused on post-school preparation. Additionally, it is observed that Catholics have a much higher tendency to continue to work as craftsmen than to move into higher management positions. Weber claims this is an unlikely relationship because, as Catholics are minorities in many places, history has shown that minorities will attempt to become dominant in business, as they will likely be excluded from politics.
Our writers can help you with any type of essay. For any subject
Order now
Weber explores another possibility for the disparity on page 64. This possible explanation brings into account the possibility that Protestants are more concerned about material gain than Catholics, while Catholics are more concerned with religion. This, however, has not held true throughout history, as many protestant groups, including American Puritans, were much less concerned about finding enjoyment in life than many modern Protestants. Weber next looks at the converse of his previous argument. He notes that many of the most adherent Christians are also highly involved in business. However, Weber notes that not all variations of Protestantism have had the same effect on the emergence of capitalism, citing the example of Calvinism having a much greater affect than Lutheranism. Weber also claims that reformed variations have had a larger effect on the development of capitalism than non-reformed sects. Weber concludes his opening argument by stating that the reasons will not be as simple as the ones explored above and will be strictly linked to religious reasons.
Weber opens the second chapter by beginning his exploration into the “spirit of capitalism” by sharing an excerpt from one of Benjamin Franklin’s writings. In this selection Franklin puts forward many moral philosophies. The entirety of these philosophies, however, is not as much related to the typical moral goals of people, but instead to inspire a gain in profit and promote capitalism. Furthermore, the goal of gaining more money is presented as an end goal, not just to be able to purchase more necessary or desired belongings. The acquisition of more money, as long as acquired legally and honestly, can be seen as an extension of religious teachings as it is similar to having a certain calling. However, this idea has occurred in a myriad of situations and is not singularly representative of capitalism. On page 73, Weber further argues that capitalism is the natural environment in which the world operates, and like in the environment people must adapt of suffer the consequences. Weber claims that in order for this way of life to become dominant it had to be prevalent among groups of people, not just individuals. Weber believes that this phenomenon is what must be explained to truly understand the spirit.
On page 74, weber begins to look at when and where the development of capitalism began. First, Weber discusses Massachusetts in 1632, where it was observed that people were seeking profit, against the puritan ideas of the day. However, despite the religious feelings against materialism, capitalism took hold more in the religious north than in the business centered south. Additionally, the idea of capitalism saw opposition during earlier periods where it was seen as greed, but managed to survive the test, mainly through people willing to go against norms of the time. As time wore on capitalism became increasingly tolerated but still had to fight against economic traditionalism.
Weber, on page 74, chooses to not give a definition of economic traditionalism, but instead chooses to look at a few examples. Weber first chooses to look at the worker. He uses the case where workers were paid an increase wage per unit of work with the hopes of increasing productivity. However, this effort had the opposite effect, as the workers chose to earn the same amount as before, resulting in less work being done. Thus, the workers fulfilled their needs without considering how much more they could earn if they worked harder. This exemplifies traditionalism because the worker doesn’t want to move from the norm of how he has been living. Weber also explores the converse, where workers earn less for each unit of work. Theoretically, this should have the opposite effect, but in reality this may also lead to a reduced productivity level, as workers don’t have enough money to satisfy their physical needs. The lower wages also fail where some level of education is required. Additionally, Weber discusses the tendency for young women workers to have a tendency to resist change.
Continuing to look at economic traditionalism, Weber shifts his attention from the workers to the business on page 79. Weber argues that even though a business works on capitalist ideas it can still have traditional components. To support this, Weber discusses the English textile industry, where for most of history peasants would sell their woven goods to middlemen and were able to maintain a good standard of living. This business model was capitalistic in nature, however it was also traditional, as it maintained many customs, including the way the textiles were produced. This industry was changed, not by a technological advance, but instead by enterprising individuals. These individuals would select people based on what they desired in their weavings and have the weavers work directly for them. They would also interact with the customer directly, removing middlemen from the process. This allowed for the textiles to be sold at lower costs than before, in addition to being more personalized. This process removed much of the previous traditional structure, creating a process almost entirely rooted in capitalism.
Capitalism was not immediately accepted, as many people looked upon the emergence of capitalism skeptically. In order for people to succeed with new capitalist ideas they had to be somebody the people trusted, while also being absorbed by his work. Weber argues that there is no connection between the capitalist behavior of the past and religion. However, he states that a relationship between the two is typically considered to be negative, as religion abhors the gain of more material goods. On page 73, Weber discusses the United States’ desire to obtain larger and larger goods, comparing this behavior to German families who are rising on the economic ladder. However, Weber asserts that the ideal employer does not engage in this type of behavior and material seeking.
Returning to Franklin, Weber claims his ideas of capitalism came were an adaptation to a new way of thinking. Weber proceeds to say that capitalism has moved past the need for approval from a religious body and argues against interference upon the economy by religion or by the state. Weber, however, states that despite capitalism being against moral beliefs in past time periods, religion may have helped capitalism emerge. Over time, capitalism changed from a set of ideas that was merely tolerated, to eventually become amicable.
Chapter three begins on page 89 with Weber comparing the German word “beruf” with the English work “calling,” noting that both words have a religious meaning. After the Reformation, the term calling became related to work and fulfilling one’s calling was considered a moral high ground. Weber traces this term and idea to an influencer of Martin Luther. Luther then takes this idea of a calling and developed it to have the significance that in order to please God, one must fulfill their calling. Weber asserts the idea of a calling is unique to Protestantism and is not found in the realms of Catholicism. This idea gave importance and significance to a typical working life and is considered to be one of the most crucial changes brought forth by the Reformation. However, even with this drastic change, Weber believes that Luther would have been completely opposed to Franklin’s way of thinking. On page 91, Weber asserts that even though many different Protestant churches were behind the spirit of capitalism, they still had issues with some components of true capitalism, such as big companies and monopolies.
Despite Luther’s belief that his revolutionary idea of a calling was taken from the Bible, there is no mention directly of his idea, but a similar one exists. Weber also claims that the Bible takes a favorable tone towards traditional economic ideas. As time passed, Luther began to assert an increasingly traditionalist view, arguing against the acquisition of goods beyond what is needed. Luther also became increasingly concerned with obedience and submissiveness towards God, redefining a calling as something directed by God. On page 94, Weber concludes that Lutheranism does not have as much to do with the emergence of capitalism as originally thought. Weber then changes his focus the Calvinism, which he perceives to have a much more connected role in the development of capitalism. Weber asserts that it is Calvinism, not the entirety of Protestantism, which can be viewed as the main opponent of Catholicism. Using two classic works, Weber attempts to compare Calvinism to other sects of Protestantism.
In part one of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism, he attempts to find a reason as to why Protestants have found themselves in far better economic situations, throughout history, as compared to Catholics. Weber examines differences in the two religions including education and the differing desire as to what line of work to go into. Additionally, he examines capitalism from both the lens of the worker and business, finally concluding with a look at Luther’s idea of a calling.
