I believe so much of poetry enlists the senses, beginning with the sense of sound. Whether its the rhythmic flow of the poem or the mere need to recite the words for a clearer understanding. The sense of sight cant help but participate while one reads a poem. Its like asking an artist to paint how he feels. Imagery is a key part of poetry creating a visual understanding. In the end poetry give a voice to the unsayable in our lives and indeed to life itself. After reading Birches by Robert Frost, my senses were reeling. The poem reads beautifully and is soothing to the ear. The imagery also paints a scene I have witnessed many winter days, growing up in the mountains. Robert Frost, while knowing the realistic cause behind the bent birch trees, prefers to add an imaginative interpretation behind the bending of the birches. He also uses the entire poem to say something profound about life. I feel it is indeed a message that, yes life may get hard, and we may lose our way, but there is still innocence and beauty in our world. We just need to remember.In the first section of the poem, Frost explains the appearance of the birches scientifically. He implies that natural phenomenon makes the branches of the birches bend and sway. Frost suggests that repeated ice storms are the real culprit to the bending branches. He however, takes the ordinary and mundane and makes it extraordinary, even comparing the breaking away of the ice from the trees to the dome of heaven shattering. Frost also lends sound to his description of the branches as they click upon themselves As the breeze rises. Frost explains the branches are bent by the ice, but do not break. Frost again adds beautiful imagery comparing the bent branches trailing their leaves on the ground to girls on hands and knees throwing their hair before them to dry in the sun. Frost, like an artist, paints a picture so beautiful of the birch trees that I cant imagine anyone read...
