Robert Frosts The Oven Bird Essay example -- Robert Frost

Robert freezings The Oven BirdIn his 1916 meter The Oven Bird (Baym, Vol. D 1188), Robert Frost chooses a title that presents a single, natural image of a particular proposition species of bird. The title not only identifies this mid-summer and...mid-wood bird as the singer everyone has perceive in the first line, it also establishes the record image as a main theme in the poem. The birds song presents images of solid tree trunks, flowers, and pear and cherry bloom, while imposing its individual voice on the landscape. This base is a defining characteristic of many romantic writers, including the transcendental writers of the ordinal century American Romantic period. In his little book Nature, Emerson writes, I am the lover of uncontained and immortal debaucher....In the tranquil landscape...man beholds somewhat as picturesque as his own nature....Nature always wears the colors of the spirit (Baym, Vol. B 1108, 1109). Emerson endows nature with everlasting life, beauty, and passion. Therefore, he feels that he (and everyone else) can realize and experience the beauty of human existence by immersing himself in the landscape. And, like the oven bird, he imposes himself on the landscape through his individual essence (in Emersons case his spirit).Despite the sign parallels with the Emersonian persona, the birds song takes life and beauty away from the natural images that it describes, denying the immortal pure tone of nature. In The Oven Bird, several natural images, traditionally symbolizing strength and beauty, nominate a romantic landscape. But, these images are individually deconstructed, leaving the natural stage setting as a whole barren and hollow. Frost crafts a poem that is dependant on nature for both its subject and it... ... he holds on to the romantic notion that nature reflects the human experience. Where Emerson says, I am nothing. I cop all (1109), Frost would say, I am nothing. I see nothing. Therefore, in The Oven Bird, Frost recon structs the romantic perspective of the nature image by removing the romantic ideals of immortal beauty and spirituality that are associated with the perspective, and imposing the modernist zeitgeist upon this traditionally romantic subject. Works CitedFrost, Robert. The Oven Bird. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Volume D.Ed. Nina Baym. New York, London Norton, 2003. 1188.Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Volume B.Ed. Nina Baym. New York, London Norton, 2003. 1106-1134.Oven-Bird. Birds of Eastern North America. 17 November 2003.http//www.aboutbirds.org.html.