Modern American Poetry: A Comparative Analysis of Robert Frost and Ezra Pound
My Life Had Stood – A Loaded Gun
In the first stanza, the poem compares her life to a gun that has been long unused. A gun is a dangerous instrument, connoting power, danger, and death. This potential is left unused, like a loaded weapon waiting for its owner.
“I think it is a poem about possession by the daemon, about the dangers and risks of such possession if you are a woman, about the knowledge that power in a woman can seem destructive, and that you cannot live without the daemon once it has possessed you” (Adrienne Rich)
- Loaded weapon = phallic symbol; artistic creation; anger at restrictions (masculine)
- It can also be the writing pen (a powerful weapon)
- Hunter/Owner/Master = 1) Masculine literary tradition; 2) The poet-part of the speaker, poetic inspiration, or the poetry itself
In the second stanza, the metaphor of the gun continues. The plural of ‘Him’ (line 8) and the killing of a Doe (female deer) suggest the speaker’s voice is suppressed by the masculine ‘master.’ Killing a doe can be interpreted as: I) a representation of the patriarchal literary tradition, and II) a symbolic act of killing her feminine part/female identity to become a poet.
The first stanza reveals the speaker’s realization of her potential and the appearance of the ‘master.’ The third stanza uses the word ‘vesuvian’ (line 11), referencing a volcano, to symbolize anger, juxtaposed with the mention of pleasure in line 12, highlighting mixed feelings.
In the fourth stanza, the speaker protects her master at night (lines 13-14) and prefers writing poems to sleeping by a man (lines 15-16). She acknowledges that writing poetry challenges traditional femininity.
The poem hints at a connection with Puritanism, where poetry was considered evil for women.
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Robert Frost was a transitional writer, more modern than Edwin Arlington Robinson. Born in San Francisco, he moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts (New England) in 1885 and later to Great Britain (Glasgow & Beaconsfield – London) in 1912.
His first volume of poetry, A Boy’s Will (1913), was introduced by Ezra Pound, followed by North of Boston (1915). Known as a ‘winter writer,’ Frost was concerned with national and regional identity and his literary ancestry (Emerson & Dickinson).
By 1915, he had established a reputation in the US. However, his life was marked by hardship, including the death of his first son from cholera, the suicide of another son, and tensions with his wife.
Despite these challenges, Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes and taught at the University of Michigan and Harvard. In 1936, A Further Range received hostile criticism for its perceived insignificant content and poor form. In 1961, he spoke at the inauguration of President Kennedy and published In the Clearing.
Heavily influenced by Thoreau and Emerson, Frost’s work exhibits Transcendentalist features:
- Symbols in nature (a late Romantic)
- Poetry as beautiful and reflective of truth
- Drawing from personal experiences
- Representing his own culture
However, key differences set him apart:
- Conservative political and intellectual views
- Pessimism towards nature, often depicted as dark, mysterious, and threatening, explaining his frequent focus on winter
- Focus on the deterioration of the human being (contrasting with the Transcendentalist faith in the human soul and spirituality), leading to the concept of the “Frostian shrug” – the Frostian man isolated in space and time.
His Collected Poems includes 22 poems about winter and 16 about night. Recurring subject matters include death and lack of communication, explored through dialogue and monologue poems.
The Road Not Taken
Inspired by his friend Edward Thomas, The Road Not Taken explores the inevitability of choice and the experience of being at a crossroads.
The first stanza sets the scene. The ‘yellow wood’ in line 1 symbolizes the autumn of life, reflecting Frost’s age of 50 at the time of writing.
In the second stanza, the speaker chooses the less traveled road, although both roads are described as similar.
The third stanza continues the description of the roads.
The fourth stanza introduces the ambiguous words “difference” and “sigh,” leaving the interpretation open to whether the choice made a positive or negative impact.
Frost himself acknowledged the poem’s complexity, stating: “You have to be careful of that one, it’s a tricky poem, very tricky.”
Two main interpretations exist: I) a Transcendentalist reading, and II) a reflection on Frost’s move to England.
The poem follows an ABAAB rhyme scheme.
Imagism
Imagism, a significant yet short-lived (1912-1917) movement in English and American poetry, represents a key development within Modernism. It originated in France with prose, influenced by figures like Baudelaire.
Imagism rejected traditional forms, embracing free verse, a form pioneered by Walt Whitman in the 19th century. This rejection of the past while adopting free verse exemplifies the Modernist spirit of challenging literary conventions.
Ezra Pound’s In a Station of the Metro exemplifies Imagism:
“The apparition of these faces in the crowd,
Petals on a wet, black bough”
The movement aimed to ‘paint a poem’ by presenting an image so vividly that it becomes mentally present for the reader.
Ezra Pound defined the image as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instance of time” (A Retrospect).
Amy Lowell further developed Imagism with her Imaginist Manifesto (1915 Anthology), which Ezra Pound jokingly referred to as “Amy-gism” due to her omission of him.
Other key theorists include T.E. Hulme and Ford Madox Ford.
Imagism eventually evolved into Symbolism, with a key distinction: in Imagism, the image is the poem itself, while in Symbolism, the image is only a part of the poem.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
Considered a founding father of modern English literature, Ezra Pound was a driving force behind several Modernist movements, including Imagism and Vorticism (a short-lived movement attempting to capture movement in an image).
He moved to Europe in 1908, establishing significant connections within the literary world. In 1912, he founded the Imagist movement and played a crucial role in launching the careers of notable writers like William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, and W.B. Yeats.