Symbolism and Synecdoche in Robert Frost’s Poetry

1、罗伯特弗罗斯特诗中的象征与提喻symbolism and synecdoche in robert frosts poetryabstract: the first world war made america a different country, and its literature underwent a substantial change. the 1920s saw a vigorous literary activity in america. robert frost (18741963) is one of the greatest poets in the 20th ce

2、ntury american literature. four times of the pulitzer prize winner, frost became the nations unofficial poet laureate and in 1961 recited his poem “the gift outright” at the inauguration of president john f. kennedy, a rare case in american history. his works often set in rural new england. natural

3、surroundings give him much inspiration and trigger his imagination. his work is often “deceptively simple”, and can be read very often on many levels. his poetry is rich in connotations and many poems suggest a deeper meaning. robert frost is skillful in using a number of symbols in his poetry, whic

4、h make his poetry possess a quality of symbolic implication. his abundant use of symbols in his poems makes his poems seemingly describe the beauty of nature, but indeed they contain some philosophic significance. robert frost also claimed that he is a synecdochist. key words: robert frost; symbolis

5、m; synecdoche 摘要： 第一次世界大战使美国发生了很大的变化，特别是在文学方面。二十世纪初，美国兴起了许多种文学运动。罗伯特弗罗斯特是二十世纪美国文学史上最伟大的诗人之一。他曾四次获得普利策奖和美国政府授予的荣誉勋章，并应肯尼迪总统之邀在其就职仪式上朗诵自己的诗歌。罗伯特弗罗斯特实为美国未受封的“桂冠诗人”。 弗罗斯特的诗歌艺术特色，离不开美国新英格兰这一特定的地理环境。弗罗斯特诗歌的语言似乎简单、含糊，但其思想蕴意深刻，常常给读者留下难忘的印象，余味无穷。诗歌的主要特征是象征和提喻，这使他的诗歌从表面上看似乎是在描写自然的美丽，而事实上却蕴藏着人生哲理。关键词： 罗伯特弗罗斯特；

6、象征；提喻 contentsi. a brief introduction to symbolism and synecdoche.1a. symbolism .11. definition of symbolism.1 2. development of symbolism.1 3. some actual examples of symbolism used in frosts poems.1b. synecdoche.2 1. definition of synecdoche.2 2. development of synecdoche.2 3.examples of synecdoch

7、e in frosts poems.2ii. a brief introduction to robert frost and his poems.3a. frosts achievements.3b. frosts poetic features.3 c. frosts writing devices.4iii. symbolism in robert frosts poems.4a. philosophical connotations embodied in frosts symbolism.4b. natural symbolism in frosts poems.6. synecdo

8、che in robert frosts poems.8a. cognitive significance of synecdochefuzzy effect in frosts poem.8b. cognitive significance of synecdocheprofile expression in frostpoems9v.conclusion.11works cited.12i. a brief introduction to symbolism and synecdochea. symbolism1. definition of symbolism symbolism is

9、a literary movement that arose in france in the last half of the nineteenth century and greatly influenced many writers, poets in particular，of the twentieth centuryholman defines symbolism as the following, “ in its broad sense，symbolism is the use of one object to suggest another，or in literature，

10、the practice of representing objects or ideas by symbols or giving things a symbolic (associated) character and meaning”(wang 43). as a literary technique, symbolism can be defined as the art of expressing ideas and emotions not by describing them directly, nor by defining them through making a comp

11、arison between concrete images, but by suggesting what these ideas and emotions are through the use of powerful symbols2. development of symbolismsymbol as a literary device was long used by many poets, such as shelley, who repeatedly made symbolic use of objects, and william blake, who exceeded all

12、 his contemporaries in the use of a persistent and sustained symbolism, both in his lyric poems and prophetic epics. in american literature, a symbolist procedure was prominent in the novels of hawthorne and melville and in the poetic theory and practice of poe. these writers derived the mode mainly

13、 from the native puritan tradition of typology. the symbolist movement, however, as a term applied specifically to a school of french writers. baudelaire based the symbolic mode of his poems on the writings of poe, and especially on the ancient doctrine of correspondences, or inherent analogy, betwe

14、en the mind and the outer world, as well as between the natural and spiritual world; as baudelaire put it: “everything, form, movement, number, color, perfume, in the spiritual as in the natural world, is significant reciprocal, converse, correspondent.” the techniques of the french symbolists, who

15、exploited private symbols in a poetry of rich suggestiveness rather than explicit signification, had an immense influence throughout europe, on poets such as yeats, pound, dylan thomas and so on. 3.some actual examples of symbolism used in frosts poemin “stopping by woods on a snowy evening”, the jo

16、urney in the poem represents lifes journey. in “the road not taken”, the forked road represents choices in life. the road in this poem is a example of a symbol. in “rose pogonias”, early in frosts poetry, flowers become a symbol for the beloved, his wife elinor.in “the pasture and directive”, spring

17、 (as in water spring) is very meaningful in frosts poetry. spring represents origin or source, almost in a proustian sense. in “come in”, “but no, i was out for stars.” the star is one of the chief symbolic images in frosts poetry.b. synecdoche1. definition of synecdochesynecdoche is a figure of spe

18、ech which mentions a part of something to suggest the whole. frost said, “i started calling myself a synecdochist when other called themselves imagists or vorticists.” synecdoche, which originates from greek, meaning “taking up together”, is a figure of speech in which a word literally denoting a pa

19、rt-usually an important part is substituted for the whole; or the whole for a part; the species for the genus, or the genus for the species; the concrete for the abstract, or the abstract for the concrete, or the name of the material for the thing made(wang 75). 2. development of synecdochein the la

20、te 1990s, a new vision has arisen in the region of synecdoche “synecdoche possesses a high value of cognition, that is, the basic pattern of synecdoche is a movement from sight to insight.” (li zhenshuan 89) in a thesis named frosts synecdoche, georage f. bagby. jr pointed out that frost and emerson

21、 imbued with the same spirit. they were all adept in using synecdoche to express a theory, attitude or philosophy through insignificant natural transmutation. every minute has an indication , and every thing was endowed with enlightment in their poems, because wisdom permeates everywhere. this is th

22、e base of cognitive significance of synecdoche3.examples of synecdoche in frosts poemsin “the gift outright”, the gift represents the history of the united states. in “kitty hawk”, mans first flight represents mans yearning for god or heaven. in “fire and ice”, the heat of love and the cold of hate

23、are seen as having cataclysmic power.ii. a brief introduction to robert frost and his poemsa. frosts achievementsrobert frost(18741963)is one of the greatest poets in the 20th century american literature. four times of the pulitzer prize winner, frost received honors from forty four institutions, an

24、d became the nations unofficial poet laureate and in 1961 recited his poem “the gift outright”at the inauguration of president john f. kennedy, a rare case in american history(faggen 15). frost is often compared with wordsworth and emerson in some aspects. and in some degree, frosts life experience

25、also has a great influence on his poetic creation, and is helpful to form his own style and characteristics. his works are often set in rural new england. natural surroundings give him much inspiration and trigger his imagination. his work is often “deceptively simple”, and can be read very often on

26、 many levels. his poetry is rich in connotations and many poems suggest a deeper meaning. his most important works include a boys will(1913), north of boston(1914), mountain interval(1916), new hampshire(1923), west-running brook(1928), a further range(1936), a witness tree(1942), a masque of reason

27、(1945), steeple bush(1947), a masque of mercy(1947), in the clearing(1962)(jiang 149).b. frosts poetic featuresfrosts poetry became a part of tradition in the american literature. most of his well-known poetry is about nature poetry. it has a surface smoothness and simplicity. then, suddenly, the su

28、rface breaks under our feet, like ice on a pond. we look down into unexpected depths of meaning. poetically, frost can be considered a link between an older era and modern culture, and his relationship to literary modernism was an equivocal one. his early poems in a boys will are similar to those of

29、 nineteenth-century american fireside poets such as longfelow and english georgians such as thomas andd gibson. many of his nature poems have more in common with the works of william wordsworth or robert browing than they do with those of his contemporaries, t.s. eliot, wallace stevens, or william c

30、arlos williams. frost wrote his poems in traditional rhymes and metrical forms like blank verse. many of his poems are dramatic narratives and can be appreciated, like prose fiction, for their characterizations and plot development. his poems are free of the ornate, poetic diction which was so commo

31、n in the nineteen-century poetry, and one of his most impressive achievements as a poet was his ability to combine colloquial speech patterns with traditional verse forms. according to frost, a good poem “begins in delight and ends in wisdom”(chang 149). it can give us a complete philosophy of life.

32、c. frosts writing devicesrobert frost claimed that he is a synecdoches in 1915. he said: “if i must be classified as a poet, i might be called a synecdochist”. a few years later, he said: “i started calling myself a synecdochist when others called themselves imagists or vorticists. always, always a

33、larger significance. a little thing touches a larger thing” (li xinhua 171). in christopher beachs book he said that frost claimed the simplicity of his language as one of the great virtues of his poetry, boasting that he had “dropped to an everyday level of diction that even wordsworth kept above.”

34、 christopher beach also thought that the simplicity is one of the reasons why frost used lots of symbolism and synecdoche in his poems. symbolism and synecdoche helped frost veil the deep meaning of his poems (beach 18).alliteration, one of the phonetic rhetorical devices, also coloured frosts poetr

35、y. it refers to the repetition usually of an initial sound that is usually a consonant in two or more neighboring words or syllables(wang 241). for example, in frosts poem “stopping by woods on a snowy evening”contains alliteration.“metaphor is the whole of poetry”(faggen 115). metaphor as a poetic

36、device is helpful to express the theme of a poem and reveal the philosophical implications of a poem. in frosts poetry, he often uses a metaphor as vehicle to express his feelings evoked by the natural scenes, phenomena and events.there are also many other devices frost used in his poems. for exampl

37、e, paradox in “fire and ice” , “but if it had to perish twice”. hyperbole in “after apple-picking”, “ten thousand thousand fruit to touch”. irony in “the road not taken” , verbal irony - the speaker knows he will tell the old story “with a sigh” of a choice that “made all the difference.” iii. symbo

38、lism in robert frosts poemsa. philosophical connotations embodied in frosts symbolismone of frosts poetic theories is that a poem should “begins in delight and ends in wisdom”(denise 107). the poem “stopping by woods on a snowy evening” is the embodiment of his theory. stopping by woods on a snowy e

39、veningwhose woods these are i think i know.his house is in the village though;he will not see me stopping hereto watch his woods fill up with snow.my little horse must think it queer,to stop without a farmhouse nearbetween the woods and frozen lakethe darkest evening of the year.he gives his harness

40、 bells a shaketo ask if there is some mistake.the only other sounds the sweepof easy wind and downy flake.the woods are lovely, dark and deep,but i have promises to keep,and miles to go before i sleep,and miles to go before i sleep.“stopping by woods on a snowy evening”is not only one of the most po

41、pular american poems, but also one written in a clear and seemingly direct style. it narrates a very simple story. a man stops by woods on a snowy evening, the darkest evening of the year. he watches the woods fill up with snow, and he is fascinated by the beautiful scenery and stays so long that hi

42、s little horse shakes his harness bells to ask if there is some mistake. the poet remembers his promises that he has to keep, so he decides move on and travel miles before he sleeps. with the exception of simplicity, the poem gives us an impression of uncertainty and ambiguity. the poet does not tel

43、l us who the person is, or where the rider is going to, or what the riders promise is. it can be interpreted that “sleep” stands for death and the mans journey toward sleep represents a persons life journey-from birth to death; from the realistic world to natural world. “woods” in this poem may symb

44、olize the natural world where a person belongs after his death. another interpretation of this poem is that “woods” symbolizes a perfect, mysterious ideal world. and the mans leaving the woods stands for his acceptance of social duty and personal responsibility. “stopping by woods on a snowy evening

45、” contains several images, and each image has its symbolic meaning. “snowy evening”, which is the image of coldness and glom, and it is the reflection of the mans mood. “woods”, which is “lovely, dark and deep”, may symbolize the whole natural world; the owner of the woods and “the village” stand fo

46、r the human society and life and the “little horse” represents a life pattern : devoting oneself to fulfilling ones social responsibility an d indulging oneself in the chaotic life of modern society, but ignoting the natural beauty in daily life and forgetting to pursue the spiritual enjoyment. the

47、mans stopping by woods may symbolize his desire to obtain the temporary tranquility of inner mind. the poem presents readers two worlds : the world of the woodsan ideal world offering perfect quietness and solitude, and a real world full of social obligations and troublesome. in the end, the man dec

48、ides to leave the woods and return to the real world. the philosophical overtone embodied in this poem is very obvious, that is, people can have a moment of relaxation from the realistic world and learn to appreciate natural beauty and obtain spiritual enjoyment when they are tired of the chaotic li

49、fe, but this does not mean they should be an escapist. as an individual in society, human should fulfill our task and keep our promises. in a word, they should keep balance between the two worlds dream and reality. the poem “stopping by woods on a snowy evening” reveals the relationship between man

50、and society. it will be very helpful for people to live an active and meaningful life, to shoulder the social responsibility and realize self-value in this society. b. natural symbolism in frosts poemsnature has inspired countless poets from primitive times to the present. they have used it as a sym

51、bol for virtually all human emotionshis stormy brow, her sky blue eyes, as wild as a summer storm. very few, however, have so masterfully crafted their verse to fully express the range of natures power and influence, or suited the tone of a poem to encompass both human nature and “true” nature. this

52、 is true in the poetic works of robert frost(liu 23). the aspects of nature that are continually demonstrated in the poems of frost symbolize both the physical world and its changes, and the nature of humans. “it can easily be argued that frost believed that little difference existed between humanit

53、ys inner nature and the nature of the world which surrounded him.” bircheswhen i see birches bend to left and rightacross the lines of straighter darker trees,i like to think some boys been swinging them.but swinging doesnt bend them down to stay. id like to go by climbing a birch treeand climb blac

54、k branches up a snow-white trunktoward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,but dipped its top and set me down again.that would be good both going and coming back.one could do worse than be a swinger of birches.robert frosts poetry is written to be easily understood and read as though it were ev

55、eryday speech. he uses free verse to tell of his love and respect for nature. he also utilizes natural symbolism in a lot of his writings. he has written about rural landscape and wildlife so much that people often refer to his as a nature poet (meyers 56) . in the poem birches, frost utilizes natur

56、al symbolism to explain how heaven is the ideal realm of purity and light, a place in which we can aspire to. he also explains how the tension between earthly satisfactions and higher aspirations emerges from the recollection of a childhood game. frosts description of loneliness is provided immediat

57、ely after he first refers to himself with his specific description in line 20. there he states, “i should prefer to have some boy bend”. he describes the loneliness of his youth, writing that he was a boy on a farm too far from town to learn baseball whose only play was found in him. as a young boy, frosts only amusement was to swing from the birches. his attempts to conquer loneliness were demonstrated through the vehicle of the birches. frost goes on to describe perhaps the most valuable lesson he learned as a child trying to overcome loneliness