Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Instructions: Using Pages 716-717 in your textbook AND your handout on T.S. Eliot, fill in the diagram below.
Robert FrostT.S. Eliot
“Meeting and Passing”
As I went down the hill along the wall
There was a gate I had leaned at for the view
And had just turned from when I first saw you
As you came up the hill. We met. But all
We did that day was mingle great and small
Footprints in summer dust as if we drew
The figure of our being less than two
But more than one as yet. Your parasol
Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust.
And all the time we talked you seemed to see
Something down there to smile at in the dust.
(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)
Afterward I went past what you had passed
Before we met, and you what I had passed.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Who are these two people?
- Do you think they knew each other from before, or are they just meeting for the first time? Why?
- Summarize the action of this poem.
- What do the last two lines mean?
- What do you think is the nature of their relationship? Why?
“Fire and Ice”
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- What side is the speaker on regarding how the world will end?
- What comes to mind with the word “fire”?
- What comes to mind with the word “ice”?
- What do you think is Frost’s overall message in this poem?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How is the title paradoxical?
2. Where do you find alliteration in this pithy poem?
3. What is the significance of the Biblical allusion Eden?
4. What is the symbolic meaning of gold in this poem?
5. What is Frost’s tone in this poem? Why?