Robert Frost bares his very soul to the reader in this heartrending poem, but he opens with a simple, matter-of-fact statement. "I have become one acquainted with the night.". The statement says so little and yet so much. He is acquainted with the dark- the gloom, the fear, and most of all the loneliness of the night hours. The narrator, like so many of us, has had his share of the darker side of human experience. He is well acquainted with the night of sorrow, suffering, and human misery. Robert Frost also begins every sentence of which there are only seven with "I" which clearly represents isolation.

In the second verse of the first stanza, the poet mentions the rain. The rain symbolizes both happiness and prosperity which could mean that the narrator has been through the best and the worst of times while in the third verse of the first stanza: "I have outwalked the furthest city light". The word "light" in this verse could symbolize optimism, hope and opportunity and so one can interpret this verse as being that the narrator has lived and enjoyed the best of his life and that he has explored all the limits of human accomplishments. The word "light" in this verse could also depict safety and so to "have out walked the furthest city light" refers to going beyond the safety of the light and the companionship of the city. This first stanza sets the solemn and solitary mood for the poem.

In the second stanza the narrator describes "look(ing) down the saddest lane". However, Frost uses the word "looked" which means that the narrator could have been depressed but not completely miserable. If Frost were to describe the narrator as being extremely sad he would have used the word "walked" instead of "looked".

Part of the second stanza, the narrator describes passing "the watchman on his beat and (dropping his) eyes, unwilling to explain". "The watchman" in this part of the stanza could depict God and so one can assume that the narrator has done something or involved in something undesirable and therefore was unable to meet his eyes.

In the third stanza, the speaker hears "an interrupted cry" in the far off distance. He stands still to listen and the sound of his feet stops, but the cry is too distant to make out clearly. The physical distance seems to be a metaphor for emotional distance. The speaker has been rejected or a rejecter of someone in the past, perhaps a lover.

In the fourth stanza, the sentence of the third stanza continues. This continuation is an unusual break from the mainly short sentences of the fist two stanzas. Here, the narrator emphasizes negativity by the lengthy line seeming to drag out and dwell on the topic, and by telling the "cry" was not to comfort him by making him feel neither needed nor wanted. The narrator then describes the moon as a time keeper. It is "One," "against the sky" as if it was viewed as signally opposing a huge unknown (the night sky). Also, by the moon being a luminous "clock" it is bright and almost a positive image while keeping order. 

Unlike the "watchman" the moon does not seem to be a judgmental figure. The moon is the closest thing to a positive image in the whole poem. In the ending stanza, the moon declares "the time" to be "neither wrong nor right." This appears to make this negative experience for the narrator a passing phase instead of a permanent state. It makes an indecisive, unclear statement which seems to justify and satisfy the narrator. 

The last line is the same as the first line. This adds to the theme of mystery and darkness of the poem.

This poem seems to have the classic quest design in which the narrator's night walk is symbolic of isolation and detachment from his surroundings in both social and natural aspects, but there is no concrete answer to end the quest. The separation from man to man or man to God (the watchman and the cry) and from man to nature (the unreachable moon) has a constant effect on humanity in this poem. The separation and negativity in this poem is oddly deliberate by the narrator and seems to directly parallel the strange short and then long sentences and internal rhymes all crammed into the varied form of a sonnet. The only conclusion given by the poem is that of acceptance. It seems that after the dark journey of searching the streets and the soul, the narrator was forced to realize that there is not an answer that will cure his isolation and detachment from society. The ending rhymes of the last two lines "right" and "night" seem to echo like a sigh of relief as if the narrator is pleased these thoughts are over and are memories. 

The speaker also uses a lot of imagery in his poem. Almost all of the lines can be used in the form of an image. The first line can be portrayed as a calendar and the fourth can be a door with no lock. In the third stanza, an open window can be used. In the fifth stanza, one could use something like a chat bubble to portray someone yelling. As for the last stanza, one could use an empty cage, a map of the world, and an old man.

The Lockless Door also has a symbolic meaning. Summarizing the poem, it means how the speaker wanted to live a lonely life. It then says that someone came to the speaker's house, and the speaker waited for them to go away. But they wouldn't, so the speaker ran away from his own home just to be alone in the world for the rest of his life.

My reaction to this poem is to wonder why the speaker wanted to be alone. There could be many, including a troubled childhood or the fact that all of his family might be dead. I can vaguely relate to this poem because I can remember countless times when I wanted to be alone in my room. Although this is true, I have never had the urge to run away just to be by myself for the rest of my life.

The concept of contradictions abounds in Frost's poetry. Frost's book North of Boston contradicts what people believe about his poetry. Because some of his poems are obviously not in traditional forms, readers assume they are free verse. But this confuses them when they find regular pentameter line joined with irregular rhythms of speech. Frost's technique of using “sentence sounds” in blank verse brought a modern sound to poetry. (Greiner 23). In 1928, Frost published West-Running Brook, which included several dark, contradictory poems. These poems include "Spring Pools," "On Going Unnoticed," "Bereft," "Tree at My Window," and "Acquainted with the Night" (26). Because of his elusiveness, a characteristic of his poetry, his poetry could seem contradictory and, therefore, confuse readers. Another trait that makes Frost's poetry so contradictory is its multiple layers. The use of layers presents readers with many views and possibilities. These layers allow all readers to find their beliefs displayed within the poems. As can be imagined, this style causes disputes when discussing the meaning of the poems (Beacham 1173). Another reason for confusion and contradiction is that Frost wrote about normal events with familiar language. As a result, many people accept the first interpretation they get, instead of delving in further (1174).

A prime example of the layers and possibilities can be found in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," which gives readers many meanings as to the theme of the poem. Some of these themes include the peacefulness of snow, duty, death, and even self-mockery. The common, but incorrect interpretation, is a moral theme about keeping promises. As Beachham writes, "A critic who reads Frost moralistically, believing that "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a lesson about keeping promises, has fallen into Frost's trap." He goes on to caution readers not to "impose their own ideas," or to "blindly accept any interpretations.” The way that readers miss Frost's intended theme is by applying their own ideas about morals to the poems (1174).

Traveling along Frost's contradictory road, "The Subverted Flower" tells of ordeals in life that can prohibit young love. The poem portrays the girl as a frigid and inhibited animal, controlled by her mother. Frost's disturbing and depressing poem contradicts his love for his wife and may have been a revenge poem. Critics believe that because Frost's wife had refused to marry him before she graduated, Frost wrote the autobiographical, seventy-three line poem that explained his sexual insecurity and jealousy he suffered before his marriage (Greiner 28).

Perceiving man's thoughts of self importance, Frost contradicts people and lowers the human life span from seventy years to one hour in "On Going Unnoticed." The line reads, "You linger your little hour and are gone, / And still the woods sweep leafily on, //..." (qtd in Greiner 26).

Frost's contradictory poem "An Old Man's Winter Night" belies Frost's public persona. Instead of the expected poem, warm and soft, the reader finds a sad tale of an old man with nothing to live for, and death quickly approaching. Alone and hopeless, the old man is held by a fear of the darkness coming and of sleep. He is compared to a house, his mind has been ravaged by years that have passed, and as Frost said, "One Aged man--one man--can't keep a house,/A farm, a countryside..." (qtd in Greiner 25).

The contradictions continue in "Dust of Snow," a small and simple poem with a deep meaning. It reads, "The way a crow/ Shook down on me/ The dust of snow/ From a hemlock tree// Has given my heart/ A change of mood/ And saved some part/ Of a day/ I had rued," (qtd Ellis 723). The poem contradicts human emotion connected to snow. The speaker's attitude seems odd because after new snow falls, the ground is pure and white, but the speaker is not happy or joyful. Another contradiction is the animal that cheers the speaker up. This is a crow, a generally hated bird (723). The crow received its bad reputation because it symbolized the devil in medieval times (724). Frost most likely did not mean for this to happen, but it could have been his way to try to get an outsider, the crow, accepted as something not totally evil in literature.

The final poem of contradictions, "After Apple-Picking," includes a grand example of misunderstood theme (Beacham 1174). In this poem, Frost deliberately uses words and ideas that he knew would confuse readers (1175). But because he wanted readers to catch on, he adds subtle hints to guide them. One of his hints is the pronoun change in line 16. Frost uses this change to supposedly draw the reader into the poem and give him a part in the story. Reading this poem, the reader believes that the sleep Frost is referring to is his own death, thus he is troubled by it in his sleep. As the reader read on, he discovers that Frost is instead talking about a simple-minded woodchuck when he uses “one” (1176).

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree/ Toward heaven still,/ And there's a barrel that I didn't fill/ Beside it, and there may be two or three/ Apples I didn't pick upon some bough/ But I am done with apple-picking now./ Essence of winter sleep is on the night,/ The scent of apples: I am drowsing off./ I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight/ I got from this morning from the drinking trough/ And held against the world of hoary grass./ It melted, and I let it fall and break./…One can see what will trouble/ This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is./ Were he not gone,/ The woodchuck could say whether its like his/ Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,/ Or just some human sleep. (Frost 26-27)

Frost uses this poem to explain how as readers use their imaginations to make death seem like more that it is, so they do to his poetry. Readers seem to read Frost's poems and make up their own meanings to the poetry.

Frost's use of contradiction does in fact give his poetry a strange, eerie quality. Although critics and readers alike today try to decipher his poems, some of his deep meaning that have not been uncovered yet, may never be found. Robert Frost was a brilliant man with a great imagination, and is still one of the great American poets.

Whose are these woods?
I think they belong to a man in the village,
But he won't see me stop here to watch
The snow fall in the woods.

The horse that I am with must be thinking
It is odd to stop where there is no stable.
I stopped in-between the woods and the frozen lake,
On the night with no moon.

The horse shakes the bells,
As if he were to ask if I had made a mistake.
There is no other sound in the woods
Except the eerie whistle of the wind.

The woods are beautiful and dark,
But I have a commitment to keep,
And I have to travel a long time,
A long way before I have time to rest.

In the poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the speaker stops by some woods on a snowy evening and absorbs the lovely scene. The speaker is tempted to stay longer, but acknowledges that he has obligations and a considerable distance to travel before he can rest for the night. The speaker talks with a tone of satisfaction, but at the end of the poem shows a tone of fatigue or tedium. The mood of poem, devotion, appears in lines fourteen and fifteen.

The poem offers a great deal of imagery, such as dark, deep woods in line thirteen that are being filled with large amounts of snow pouring from the sky in line four, and house in a small village, again the snow coming down, except this time on the roof the house, in line three. Also, a frozen lake, let it be big or small, with the sky darkening fast, in lines seven and eight. In the third stanza, a horse is shown shaking the bells on his reigns, as if to call the attention of the speaker, to inform him that he must have made a mistake.

The poem consists of four almost identically constructed quatrains. Each line has iambic tetrameter. Within the four lines of each stanza, the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme. The third line does not, but it sets up the rhymes for the next stanza. The rhyme scheme is as follows: a,a,b,a;b,b,c,b. For example, in the second stanza, lines five through eight, queer, near, and year all rhyme, but lake rhymes with shake, mistake, and flake in the following stanza. The only exception is the last stanza in which the third line rhymes with the previous two lines and is repeated as the fourth line, therefore the rhyme scheme: d,d,d,d.

This poem speaks of wanting to enjoy the pleasures of life, such as watching woods fill up with snow, but then it concludes with the speaker acknowledging that he has work to do, and one can assume that he proceeds on to do it. The poem seems to be stating that it is all right to enjoy the special moments in life, but if one makes a promise, he should not compromise it with the things he enjoys, even if the activities seem better than working.

The entire scene takes place on a staircase, a telling diagonal, on which the characters move about like chess pieces. In a game of chess, the movements of the pieces are almost more revealing of the players' styles than the base facts of who won, who lost. By studying just the movements of the pieces, one can discern and measure a player's aggression, thoughtfulness, experience, and strategy. Frost transforms the argument between the spouses into a kind of chess game, revealing the nature of the conflict and the characters more through action and setting than through dialogue.

More so than some of Frost's other dialogue driven poems, such as “Death of the Hired Man,” the setting of “Home Burial” resembles that of a play. This semblance is because the entire scene is confined to the same setting, a staircase with a door at the bottom and a window at the top, throughout the entire poem. The setting is actively involved in the poem from the first stanza, “He saw her from the bottom of the stairs” (55), to the last, “She was opening the door wider” (58). The window at the top of the stairs looks out onto a plot in the backyard where the husband's relatives and the baby are buried. The husband describes the graveyard as “so small the window frames the whole of it” (56). The graveyard is represented solely within the context of the window, inside the window frame; and the window comes to embody the baby's death. The relatives are buried under “three stones of slate and one of marble” (56) while the baby is buried much more ominously under a mound, a fearful excrescence rather than a memorial.

The poem begins with the husband at the bottom of the stairs, him watching his wife, and Amy at the top of the stairs, looking through the window. The placement of both these characters visually presents the conflict immediately to the reader. Both characters share the same problem, represented by the staircase: the grieving of the death and the subsequent change in their relationship. Therefore, both characters start standing on the staircase. However, the couple is standing at opposite ends of this staircase, representing not only their opposing desires and ways of dealing with the problem, but also the path that they must travel to reach the other person.

The husband has literally an upward battle to be in his wife's position; he must climb the staircase to reach the window overlooking the graveyard. Figuratively, this means that he must raise his regard of the baby's death- a higher importance, a stronger sense of grief, and more sensitive- to be close to his wife. At the poem's start, the husband holds the death at a lower importance (he stands at the bottom of the staircase) and is very distanced from the death (he stands the farthest away possible from the mound). Frost uses the husband's position to explain his attitude toward the baby's death without the husband having to speak or even act.

The wife, however, starts at the top of the stairs, closest to the window as possible. Her stationary position tells the reader that she holds the baby's death in great importance and is very attached to it. More interestingly, in order to traverse the staircase, which represents the conflict between the characters, she must travel downward. This slant reflects her outlook of the relationship after the child's death. Looking at the staircase as a line graph, quality of the marriage over time, we see that after the child's death the relationship will fall steadily until it reaches the end of the relationship, represented by the door, the house's exit. This progression reveals why the wife is attached and sympathizes with the baby; for her, the baby's death symbolizes the death of the relationship, for it acts as a cataclysm for the ultimate end of the marriage. The staircase represents, for her, the deterioration of her marriage and the death of her home. Frost uses the character's position in relation to the staircase to reveal her conflict in the poem as well as why she relates significantly to the dead child.

As much as we learn about the problems facing the characters from their starting positions, Frost reveals more about the scene through the actions of the characters. The wife starts heading “down, looking back over her shoulder at some fear” (55). She is looking out the window at the burial site, but why is she looking at it in fear? It is because, as Frost has made evident through the setting, she feels that the death of the child will cause the downfall of the relationship, and she is afraid of this. Since the baby's grave is an unmarked mound of dirt, her concern becomes “some fear,” reflecting the nebulous dreadfulness of the mound.

In most poems, the presence of a window traditionally represents a feeling of freedom for the speaker. However, in this way, the poem does not quell the wife's desire to leave the house, but incites it: the window is a constant reminder of her dead child. The window presents the wife a clear perspective, a transparent lens to view her situation and her baby's death. She can see through the window, nearly into the grave, in a way her husband cannot at the bottom of the stairs.

The first time she makes a more insightful observation through the window's perspective is when she sees her husband digging the grave. She admits to creeping “down the stairs and up the stairs to look again” (56), and repeats that behavior now, as her husband watches her: “She took a doubtful step and then undid it to raise herself and look again” (55). This uneasy footwork shows how she is drawn towards the inside of the grave, a kind of fearful attraction, and hints of her longing to be dead, buried with her son. The strange action “undid” seems out of place, but phonetically resembles a word to describe the living dead, “undead.” She relates with the dead child, and this is the reason she was so appalled at how casually her husband dug the grave. To her, her husband was nonchalantly digging her grave- and this is why she takes personal offense.

As she gets ready to leave the house she says, “I must get out of here” (56). Is it because of the argument or what the husband did? The reason, stated immediately afterwards, is simply: “I must get air,” as if she is the one buried under the mound of dirt. She is not pulled from the house by the idea of freedom, but rather pushed out of the house by a fear of the grave.

This fear proves to the reader that the things her husband does and says are not causally efficacious to her desire to leave. Despite what one gleans from the dialogue, by examining the actions the wife we see that her husband is merely an obstacle for her inevitable exit, rather than the cause for it.

Most of the dialogue deceivingly places emphasis on the husband's speech. She says, though, “Oh, you think the talk is all” (58), revealing to the husband (and the reader) that the actions are what's most important for an understanding of the conflict. Throughout the poem, the husband gropes through his words to say something that will cause her to want to stay, but every time we see her respond through action, as if to tell him that his words are insignificant, and that he cannot change the fact that she is leaving. “'Help me, then,'” he says, pleading for help on forming a question pleasantly. In response, “her fingers moved the latch for all reply” (56), as if telling him that his speaking is not important. He says that they could make an arrangement so that he does not offend her with words. “'Though I don't like such things "twixt those that love,"” he says philosophically. “Two that do [love] can't live together with them.' She moved the latch a little” (57). When he starts speaking generally, even pleasingly, she again twists the handle as if to say that she will still leave even if he is pleasant in his speech. Finally, in the last stanza, the husband yells “'If-you-do!'” while she “was opening the door wider” (58). This shows that even if he intends to use force to make her stay, she will still leave him, for her fear of the baby's grave is too great.

Although the husband “'can't […] speak of his own child he's lost'” because his “words are nearly always an offense” (56) and his wife believes he doesn't “know how to speak” (57), Frost makes it clear that his ability to speak is unimportant. Both characters speak an equal amount of dialogue in the poem, with equal line width. In fact, the characters are both inept with speech, for even after she has “said it all and […] feel[s] better,” she still replies with contempt: “You- oh, you think the talk is all. I must go” (58). Even though she has said all she wanted to say, the words are still insufficient, and she still must leave. Frost shows clearly that the characters' speeches are equally unimportant and misleading, so that the meaning in the poem is found through action and setting.

However, some of the dialogue reinforces the sentiments revealed through action and setting. The wife at one point condemns the husband for not caring enough, saying, “Friends make pretense of following to the grave, but before one is in it their minds are turned and making the best of their way back to life and living people, and things they understand” (58). She says this as if the correct thing to do and the thing that would give her most pleasure would be to die along with the baby. However, since she can't, she must go on living in the world. “But the world's evil,” she says, referring to the carelessness of her husband and the house she must live in. And this is why she feels she must leave the house- to get away from the grave (where she should be, or rather, is), since she cannot physically be dead.

Another theme that the actions and setting reveal is the idea that the couples are having problems sexually. This faltering desire is mirrored in the movements on the staircase, how the husband chases after the wife like hunter and prey. “She withdrew shrinking from beneath his arm that rested on the banister, and slid downstairs” (56). The language used to describe her actions is submissive and dodgy, with words like “withdrew,” “shrinking,” “beneath,” and “slid.” This shows that the husband still believes in the relationship sexually, and he still considers them in love. He regards the baby's death in opposition to their love, for he asks why she took the death of “a first child so inconsolably- in the face of love” (57). However, the wife believes that their love is on a downfall due to the direction of the stairs to the door, and the fact that the graveyard plot is “not so much larger than a bedroom” (56). Relating the size of the plot to a bedroom, where the couple makes love, shows that not only is their relationship on a downfall, but that their love life is literally dead.

Even though the dialogue in “Home Burial” takes a deceiving prominence over the action due to its quantity, the true nature of the conflict between the husband and wife can be discerned only through their actions and their relation to the setting. Frost uses the window, the staircase, and the door to convey that the wife must leave the relationship and the house, not because of her husband's insensitivity or inability to speak well, but because of the fear her connection with the dead child causes her. Frost deceives the reader through dialogue because the characters are similarly deceived. Both the husband and wife believe the problem is in speaking to one another (ironic, for the problem for the reader trying to discern meaning is their speech), something that can be remedied. However, by examining their actions and the setting, we find that the death of the child will inevitably lead to the end of their relationship, that path that is ahead of the wife. Their home was doomed by the child's death, and so the death represented not just the death of the child (or the figurative burial of the wife), but also the burial of the home.

The topic of the poem is about two neighbours who differ over the need of a wall to divide their properties. Not only does the wall operate as a partition in dividing domains; it also works as a barrier in the neighbour's companionship, separating them. For the neighbour the wall is of immense importance and it offers a sense of safety and seclusion. He believes that although two people can still be pleasant to one another, some type of blockade is required to divide them and "wall in" the individual space and solitude. This is revealed through his recurring saying "good fences make good neighbours". The neighbour's property is a symbol of his privacy and the wall operates as a barrier against any disturbance.

Behind the straightforward idea of constructing walls there is a deeper metaphoric significance which reveals peoples feelings towards others. It reflects the common barriers that people use to provide a sense of individual security and reassurance in the belief that barriers are a source of protection which will make people less exposed to their fears. The narrator questions the need for barriers.

Imagery is used when the two men gather on terms of politeness and friendliness to construct a barrier between them out of tradition and habit. Yet the Earth schemes against them and makes their task difficult. The men thrust boulders back on top of the wall however the boulders fall back down once more. Still the neighbours persevere even though the narrator doesn't comprehend why the wall is required in spite of the neighbour's reiteration that "Good fences make good neighbours" since it provides no useful purpose. "Where there are cows" suggest that the narrator believes a wall would be better erected to keep cows in "but here there are no cows". By implying that "he is all pine and I am apple orchard" would suggest that the narrator believes that it is worthless to erect a wall solely to "wall in" their shrubs.

The two neighbours appear to enjoy building the wall; it brings them closer together and improves relations. Yet the narrator believes that his neighbour is like an aged man who is set in his ways "like an old stone savage." "Who moves in darkness" he is unlikely to alter his point of view on building the wall. A generally optimistic quality has been achieved throughout the poem. One of the main techniques utilised to accomplish this is an inclusion of dialogue. "Stay where you are until our backs are turned" and the metaphor "spring is mischief in me" show the neighbours in an amusing way which forms a cheerful atmosphere.

The structure of "Mending Wall" is a lengthy one stanza poem which contains a narrative-like style. Poetic technique such as imagery, irony and using the construction of a wall as a symbolic representation of barriers have been utilised to express these messages through a cheerful tone, and at the same time to expose a serious side of the poem.

Onomatopoeia has too been used within the poem. "The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard" allowing the reader to visualise the saw being used. The words "snarled and rattled" are brought into play once more to characterise the saw as a dangerous weapon. Personification is also employed in lines 14 and 15. "At the word, the saw, / as if to prove saws knew what supper meant." This makes the saw appear knowledgeable and that it knew what "supper" was.

Sibilance has been applied in line 3. "Sweet scented stuff when the breeze drew across it" generating olfactory imagery in the scattering of the scent in the breeze, this creates a harmonious effect.

Frost has used a figure of speech in the appearance of a metonymy. "As if to keep the life from spilling." The literal meaning is to keep the blood from spilling, the line tells us that the hand is bleeding and the boy's life is in danger.

Frost introduces a hyperbole to line 16. "Leaped out of the boys hand or seemed to leap." Obviously the saw has no limbs so does not have the capability to leap, but by overstating the point we can imagine the horror of the saw cutting into the boy's limb.

The poem also has a religious tone, line 14: "Supper" is a reference to the last supper which would also be the last supper that the family would eat before tragedy struck.

There is a conversational tone to the poem, "Call it a day, I wish they might have said." A ten monosyllabic line that is the first inclination that the poem is written in the first person as a narrative verse with a setting, a plot and conflict. In the same line Frost uses foreshadowing. Here, he is suggesting that something dark and sinister was coming.

The poem almost satirizes society's indifference at a child's death. The start of the poem is idealistic with the imagery of the scenery, the sunset and the "five mountain ranges". The nature in the poem appears perfect until the saw appears like a snake waiting to attack.

A caesura is used in line 32. "Little-less-nothing! and that ended it." The audible pause offers finality to the boys passing and after the tragedy the boy's relations continue with their lives as normal, as if nothing had happened. The poem is a narrative as if Frost witnessed it happening, written in blank verse as a continuous structure.