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Robert Frost and the Clearing in the Wilderness I ROBERT FROST AND THE CLEARING IN THE WILDERNESS A Thesis Presented to the Facu'ty of the Department of InglIsh California State College at Hayward In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degre. Haster of Ar ts by David Warren But'.r I August 1966 Or. Morton Rosenbaum. Reader Or. BIckford Sylvestef. Re.def TABLE OF CONTENTS '8g_ INTRODUCTI ON •• · . .. THE VILDERNISS • ••••.•.• • •• 5 THE CLIAR I NG •• · . ..... • 25 ROBERT FROST AND THE CLEAR ING IN THE WI LDERNESS INTRODUCTI ON In a famous speech delivered In honor of Robert Frost on his I eighty-fifth birthday, Lionel Trl111ng called hI. a "terrifying poet." There Is some truth In thll Itatement. Frostconfrontl a unlverle which Is a1len and Indifferent, In which un's civilization and his sanity are constantly threatened by • chaotic world In which the Indi- vidual Is Inevitably condemned to a certain degree of Isolation and confusion. Frost's poetry Is terrifying becau.e, like many of his con­ temporarle., he I. unable to comprehend any transcendent order which gives meaning to ..n'. existence. As Trilling', addresl revealed. Frost Is enmeshed In the meta- 2 physical dilemma which Joseph Krutch de,crlbes In The nodern Temper. Trllllng'l speech, reflecting the critical consensus of the late fifties, Indicates that Frost'. place as a modern poet .erlously concerned with the philosophical Issue. whIch dOMinate the twentieth century I. no longer a subject for dispute. As JaMes Cox states, the speech marks t~ surreneter of the critical oppositIon to Frost's poetry and personality '''A Speech on Robert Frost: A Cui tural Episode," Robert Frost, ed. James H. Cox (Inglewood Cliffs, N. J., 1962), p. 156. 2 "Prefacell (New York, 1956), p. xl. 2 3 which developed during the thirties. Th. plctur. of a stubborn. nine- te.nth -century rural cons.ryatlve presented fn such .sseys a. Malcolm 4 Cowley's ''The Ca.e Against Mr. Frost" was at last generally recognized as a distorted portrait of the artist. However. the nature of Frost·. r.spon.e to the modern dfl..... and consequently hll significance In relation to other well-known con­ teapor.ry American poets, r...ln controversial. CrItics alMOst unanl- moGsly acknowledge Frost', conslder.ble poetic talent, but they offer a wide range of opInions concarnlng the character and the yalue of the philosophical attitude which hlspoells ..scribe. Among those Icholars who have att.-pted to eveluate Frost', work within the last ten year., Yvor Winter. and 'eorge Hltchle main­ tain that he Is barred fraa greatness by his tendency to treat serious themes In a whimsical. superficial. Intellectually Irrespon.lble man- nero In his essay, "Robert Frost: or. the Spiritual Drifter as Poet.,'1 Winter. make. the following statements: Frost. as far as we have examined him, then, ts a poet who holds the following views: he belleyes that 'mpul •• I. trust­ worthy anet r••sOft contemptible, that forNtlve decisions should be Mde casually and pas.lvely, t ....t tM Indlv'dual should re­ tr.at fra- cooperative action with his kind, .hould retr.at not to engage In Intellectuel actIvity but In order to protect him­ self from the conte-Inatlon of outsld. Influence. that affairs manage them.elvel for the best If left alone, that Id••• of good and evil need not be taken very .erlously. Th.s. ylews ar. sur. to be a hlndr.nce to ••If-development, and they effectually cut Frost off fra- any really profound understanding of human !xperl­ ence, whether polftlcal, MOral, metaphyslca' or r.llgious. 'cox. "'ntroductlon." p. 9. 5As quoted by Cox, p. 75. :5 And Mltchl.'s objections to Frost's work ar. of much the .... order.' 't 'S not difficult to pick out certa'n of Frost's poems which confirm the crlticls.. whIch Winters and .'tchle make. Such a poem. Is "The Cod.'" in which an attem,t" IRUrdar .e,,,.. Oftty to Illustrate the relatlv.ly trivial I.,son that one cannot t.11 a hlr.d hand to work Itbetter or fa.ter. u Another exafttpla I. "Awey,,' In whIch Frost ,laY"" fully sldest.ps the major Issue which the poeM r•••••··th. prObl_ of facing "eath··by proposing an vnllk.ly solution: .•.I May return If dlssathfled WIth what I le.rn From having died.7 But the conclullon that Frost I. a s,lrltual drifter, and there· fore .. minor poet, does not do Justice to hIs work a' • who'e. All Major poets have written lORe slIght poeal. Since FrOit's collectad poeMS fill over seven hundred peg••, even a larga nuntber of faa lurel doel not ,reclude the posil bll Ity that he ha. also produced .. slt.ble body of poetry reflectIng the labor. of • re.ponslble IntellIgence. Indeed, his belt work hal now convInced the majorIty of c~ntators that he de.erves to be ranked among the gr..t American poet. of ovr century. In order thet tha objections which WInters and Hltchle rat.e may be satl.factorlly answered, and that Frost' • signIfIcance as a modern poet may be justlv eve)u.ted. 't Is essential. 1 am convinced, 6 UAMorMntary Stay AgaInst Confusion." !;taUn ~.Iues In the PoetrX of .obert Frott; A Study of a 'oet's t!riYlcj1Ons (Durham, )960). 7 1n the Ct.,rlng (New York, 1962), p. )5. 4 to d.flne as clearly as polslble the significant IdeologIcal position Frost has established In the face of the modern dilemma. Much of the material published In praIse of Frost 15 essentially uncritical, wrItten as an apprecIation of his poetry, lIke Randall 8 Jarrell's "To the Laodleeans", or as a friendly biography, like Sidney 9 Cox's A !wInger of ,Irche.; It 'ortral t of Robert Fr.ss; or.s _ COlt- blnatlon of the ~. lIke Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant's Robert Frost: 10 The Trlel ~ Ixlstence. Only In John F. Lynen', critical enalysls. The,Pastoral Art of Robert frost. Is the I.~tant ontologIcal problem f1 approached; but as the tItle of hIs book sUfge'ts. LyRen Is more concerned with his att..pt to prove that Fr.'t Incorporate, certaIn techniques derived 'rom pastor.I and symbolist poetry then with a dis­ cussIon of the poet's Ideas. Of course, a thorough study of Frost's significance as _ modern poet Is far outside the scope .f this thesis. Although my discussIon wIll neee,.arily be I'.lted to • few major poInts, • have chosen to ex_lne the symbol ic ._nl09 of the clurlng In the wilderness be­ cause t believe that It off.rs a wey to go dIrectly to the center of Frost', thought and ~.rn'ty. and becaus., ••• hope to Indicate In subsequent analyses. Frostls awareness of the modern dilemma fs re· vealed In his fl nett P<*fts. 8 9 James CO)(. pp. 83-'04 . New York, 1957. 10 It New York, 1960. New "eyen. 1960. THE WILDERNESS To determine the meaning of the clearing. it Is necessary to understand the significance of the wlldernes$ which surrounds It. In general. the wildernesl or wasteland which appears In many of Frost's poems. Uke the "pathless woocft' of "Blrches." or the "sameness of the wood" in "The Demlurge's Laugh,lt represents the allen, Indifferent universe that confront. modern .an. The poet. 5ymbollcally lost in the woods. admits his share In the spirituel bewilderment of his con- temporaries. Joseph Krutch s.....riz.s his essay on the "modern tem- per" as follows: The universe revealed by Iclence. especially the science. of biology and psychology. Is one in which the human spirit cannot find a comfortable home. That spirIt breathes freely only In a univ.rse where what phIlosophers call Value Judg­ ments are of supreme Importance. It needs to believe. for Instance that right and wrong are real. that Love is more than a biologIcal function, that the human mInd Is capable of r.ason rather than merely of rationalIzation. and that It has the power to will and to choose Instead of belog compelled merely to react In the fashion predetennlned by Its condition­ Ing. Since science ~as proved that none of these belIef, Is more than a delusion, mankind will be compelled either to sur­ render what we call its humanIty by adjusting to the real world or to live some kInd of tragic exlsllnce in a universe allen to the de.pest needs of Its nature. Frost concludes the poem. "tn the Long Night," with the state­ ment that "There will come another day." Perhaps <as does Robinson In "Credo" or "Man Against the Sky") he intends to suggest that In another 1241The Modern Temper," p. x,. 8ge man's spl rI tual confusIon wi I , be ..eaolved. Unll k. the hard-cor• • KlltentlaI1ats. who neverperc.lve the possIbIlity that lome trans­ cendent ord.r .xfsts which .'ght l.act to afutur••nllght.....nt. FrOit faces an .pht_olog'cal Issue. Th. world whfch he confronts Is-not n.cessarlly absurd, but Frost returns re,.atedly to the theme that for the pr•••nt It appeara to be absurd ao4 ~st be dealt wIth as such. 'erhaps 'rost's best expre,,'on of ...n'sinabllity to d'scove,. .. foundation for hUlian values In the eKternal world of nature Is the PC*I uThe Most of It.tI Th••Ilet.rness In which the po-. It set acqul rei unfversal signIficance wIth the openIng line. The poeM r.ads: He thou.ght he kept the unlver•• alone. For all the volc. In answer he could _Ice Was but the mock'ng echo of hit own 'reat .GIH tr....hldd.n cliff acro.s the lak•• Sa-e mornIng 'raa the boulder-broken beach He woul.
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