Imagery In Robert Frost's Birches

Many authors utilize imagery to allow the reader to engage in and understand their works. In Robert Frost’s “Birches,” there are several instances where the poem contains heavy usage of imagery for this purpose. The meaning of the poem “Birches” is very under-the-surface— the entire poem focuses on bent birches— too vague for the central purpose to be clear and solid. However, the poem’s copious examples of imagery enable the audience to grasp the scenery that Frost is attempting to describe. In “Birches,” Movement One depicts the author erasing the damage that ice-storms have done to birches by replacing this idea with a more sugar-coated version; he imagines that a “Boy’s been swinging them.” (Frost 3). In addition, he also describes the

It offers the reader a more personal and relatable vibe while reading this movement. Truth: most of us despise it, and most of us try to avoid it. Unhealthy, but we would much prefer living something fantasy-esque and more exciting than the truth, just like the speaker of “Birches,” where he “should prefer to have some boy bend them” (Frost 23). After admitting his awareness of the ice-storm, he still progresses onto his preference of the boy, in fact, fabricating a backstory of why the trees are that way— similar to that of a tall tale. In the excerpt he visions the boy as one who grew up in a rural area, too far to know of “baseball.” Instead, he finds his pleasure through the swinging of trees, for instance “One by one he subdued his father’s trees/By riding them down over and over again” (Frost 28-29). It appears, based on the recurring style of “Birches,” that it is custom that Robert Frost goes in depth when it comes to describing anecdotal situations. This is most likely done in order to obtain the reader’s full attention into immersing themselves into his literature, hence the extension of the boy’s experience, “Clear to the ground. He kept his poise,” (Frost 35) but it could also serve as a type of reminiscence that Robert Frost experienced in the process of