The first section also gives us two sets of opposites “left and right” (Frost, 1) and “bend… straighter” (Frost, 1-2) which are used along with the rest of this section to provide the reader with the main conflict in the speaker’s life along. “I see birches bend to left and right” (Frost, 1) is an example of visual imagery, followed by an example of a symbol “darker trees” (Frost, 2). Through more indications from the poem we discover that this man also has interior battles that he faced on top of everything else and through the paradox this conflicted state of his mind is revealed.Īs indicated earlier in the first section of “Birches”, background information is given, because the reader needs it to understand the rest of the poem correctly. Not only did he have a poor childhood “whose only play was what he found himself” (Frost, 26), but he also lived the rest of his life alone “some boy too far from town to learn baseball” (Frost, 25) … “Could play alone” (Frost, 27) and without love. The old man lived nothing close to a happy life, and is filled with regret, dreaming constantly that he could live his life back over again. Frost provides the reader with information to assume that by having the speaker say “So was I once myself a swinger of birches and so I dream of going back to be” (Frost, 41 and 42) which reveals to the reader that the speaker is older because “a swinger of birch” (Frost, 41) is described as a young boy, so revealing the speakers gender. Without direct indication from Frost, the reader is able to figure out that the speaker in this poem is an older man. This is the first thing we learn about the speaker through poetic devices, but it is just the beginning of them in the poem. Frost presents the speakers conflict with the title, because the speaker wants to use the birches to go back to his childhood, due to fact that his life right up to this point has been very lonely and awful. He using literally devices to unfold the controlling metaphor throughout the poem. The birches have a symbolic representation to the speaker as his childhood and are known to him as a way to go back to being a “swinger of the birches” (Frost, 42). The title “Birches”, introduces the reader to the controlling metaphor. Frost uses extreme use of contrast because the speaker whom Frost describes in his poetry are forced to choose between rationality and imagination, and the two cannot exist at the same time. Next, Frost delivers the reader with the reality and connects the speaker to the previous lines, followed by a resolution in the way the speaker feels. It is then followed by what (at first) is fiction. This truth later changes to fiction due to paradox. The poem begins by giving the reader background information until line five, when it precedes on to the truth. Instead, along with the speaker’s beliefs, they depend on the reader developing a strong understanding of the poem. These breaks do not jump out to the reader right away. Although visually, the poem doesn’t have any more than one selection, it is broken down into five different sections based on changes in the topic as well as the speaker’s ideas. The style of “Birches” is a free verse of numerous variations on the prevailing iambic foot. Frost begins by giving the central image of the poem by letting the reader know exactly what is about to happen.
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