Essay About Ralph Waldo Emerson And Robert Frost

Robert Frost
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Robert Frost and Ralph Waldo Emerson are two obviously different
types of writers. They both wrote during different times, Emerson during
the nineteenth century, and Frost during the twentieth. Emerson and Frost
had different views on the poets role. Both authors views were
characteristic relating to the different time period in which each of them
wrote. In Alvan S. Ryans essay “Frost and Emerson: Voice and Vision” he
writes “There is nothing about Frosts Conception of the role of a poet
that is close to Emersons.”(Ryan126) Emerson and Frost both had different
writing styles, as again described in Alvan S. Ryans essay Frost and
Emerson: Voice and Vision he says ” Whereas Emerson prefers to be
suggestive, to develop a few images or a series of briefly sketched scenes,
Frost characteristically structures a poem around a single symbolic event.
Emersons unifying principle is ideational, Frosts metaphorical.”(Ryan127)
Both of these writers have their differences as all writers do. A close
look at their works will show that Frost and Emerson have similarities.
At a first glance the works Frost and Emerson seem to have numerous
similarities. In Alvan S. Ryans essay “Frost and Emerson: Voice and
Vision” he states that Frost and Emerson “agree on the central importance
of symbol and metaphor.
They have a common preoccupation with rural subjects. They share
basic sense of correspondence. . . .”(Ryan125)Also, these two writers are
similar in that they both tend to write about the same subject matter.
Many of the titles of Frosts poems: “Mending Wall,” “Storm-Fear,” “The
White- Tailed Hornet,” “I Could Give All to Time,” and “Spring Pools” are
similar to the titles of some of Emersons poems: “The Snow- Storm,” “Give
All to Love,” “Two Rivers,” “The Humble-Bee,” “The Rhodora.” These
similarities are superficial and can be seen in comparing many other
authors. Where these two writers really connect is in their common
interest in nature.
Both writers have reputations of being poets of nature. In
Emersons essay “Nature” he writes “In the wilderness, I find something
more dear and connate than streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape,
and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as
beautiful as his own nature.”(Emerson442) An essay written by Roberts W.
French “Robert Frost and the Darkness of Nature” states, in his poems Frost
always “seems to be participating in the life of nature, deriving
sustenance from it , and finding in it a deeply satisfying source of
pleasure”(French155).
They both have similar theories as to why it was important for them
to write about nature. Emerson writes in his essay “The American Scholar”,
“the first important influences upon the mind is that of
nature”(Emerson468). He also says that nature is a
“circular power returning into itself. Therein it resembles his own spirit,
whose beginning, whose ending he never can find – so entire – so
boundless.”(Emerson469) In
Emersons essay “Nature” he writes “It is not words that are
emblematic; it is things which are emblematic. Every natural fact is a
symbol of some spiritual fact . . . . Who looks upon a river in a
meditative hour and is not reminded of the flux of all things?”(Emerson447-
448) From these quotes it is seen that Emerson believed nature was a
force everything was connected through. By understanding nature one can
understand his own spirit. Thus Emerson believed nature helped to clarify
the supernatural. Seemingly Emerson believed writing about nature brought
him closer to nature thus bring him closer to his own spirit.
Frost does not go as deep as Emerson in that he did not believe
that nature helped to clarify the supernatural. In his essay “Education by
Poetry” Frost says ” The figure a poem makes?It begins in delight, it
inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down,
it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life- not
necessarily a great clarification, such as sects as cults are founded on ,
but a momentary stay against confusion.”(Frost77). Frost believed that his
poems helped to clarify life.
However Frost also believed as Emerson that poetry helped to make