Monday, November 3, 2014

"The Aim Was Song" by Robert Frost

Robert Frost lived from March 26, 1874 to January 29, 1963 and one of the most famous and critically acclaimed American poet. He has received numerous awards for criticizing American society and culture.

The Aim Was Song

Before man to blow to right
The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
In any rough place where it caught.

Man came to tell it what was wrong:
It hadn't found the place to blow;
It blew too hard -- the aim was song.
And listen -- how it ought to go!

He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.

By measure. It was word and note,
The wind the wind had meant to be --
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song -- the wind could see.
                                    Robert Frost (1874)

This poem, while short and concise, is able to hammer its point across. Like many of his other famous poems, Robert Frost writes about society and in this one specifically, he examines how poetry has evolved and changed its form and the ideas it represents. Frost attempts to use wind as a metaphor for the changing form of poetry. Wind represents a powerful and nearly uncontrollable force and when the wind starts blowing you have no ability to stop it. This wind can be easily related to the American mindset where patriotism and nationalism create an unstoppable drive within the American public. Whatever, the author's goal is they always have the aim of creating a song and melody. Frost does this by writing a poem with a firm structure. This poem has a very strict form and contains four quatrains all written with an ABAB rhyme scheme and is written in iambic pentameter. These poetic conventions create a rhythmic and melodic feeling when reading the poem. If read out loud this poem simply rolls off the tongue and at any point, it appears as if the reader could break out in to song at any moment. Wind acts as a source of change. A majority of past poems were written in very loose and unstructured form and Frost comments on how there is a new prevailing use of structure and consistency in modern poetry. Wind also creates noise in a silent world. It blows past our ears and runs through trees and causes a rustling sound. Frost realizes that wind is the song of the Earth and utilizes this to strengthen his poem.

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