Poetry Project Essay: Robert Frost Revered and influential modern American poet, Robert Frost, is known for his manipulation of structure and form, as well as his exceptional use of American colloquial language. The majority of Frost’s poems embody the theme of the elegance of nature. By using techniques such as juxtaposition or antithesis, personification, caesura, and enjambment in his poems “Departmental”, “’Out, Out—‘”, and “Birches,” he creates a variety of tones that not only epitomize the natural beauty of the world, but also make intriguing points and social commentaries about the inevitability of death and the nostalgia associated with life. The technique of antithesis, or the closely related idea of juxtaposition, are evident in …show more content…
“Departmental” approaches the idea of death in a jovial, nonchalant tone. Throughout the poem, the ants are used as an example of the lack of interest nature shows to death, in that as “One cross[es]…The body of one of their dead/[he] Isn’t given a moment’s arrest…[and] seems not even impressed”(lines 14-17). Frost uses the phrase “one of their dead” to create an irrevocably impersonal tone, which emphasizes the idea that the ants prioritize need and duty over emotion. Later, as the body is being taken away, none of the ants “stand around to stare/[As] it is nobody else’s affair,” (lines 40-41). Frost portrays the ants as a sort of model, using them to deliver his opinion that the living should be detached from the element of death, and those who have succumbed. This detachment is evident in the critiques of Deidre J. Fagan. As he puts it, “There is a departmental aspect to any death, as the living will ultimately return to their lives.” Fagan again mentions that Frost idealizes the need for the living to be detached from the dead, claiming, “…but there is a particularly departmental quality to death in modern life…Frost focuses on the experience of one living, but of one living apart and