Selected Poems of Robert Frost

Paper Summary:

A paper which reviews three of Robert Frost's poems, "A Considerable Speck," "After Apple-Picking," and "Two Tramps in Mud Time." The paper shows how these poems express Frost's optimism - the bug lives in the end, even the bad apples will become apple cider, and the spring will eventually follow winter.

From the Paper:

"Many of us have inadvertently or perhaps on purpose squashed a tiny bug without thought. But in a Considerable Speck, Frost connects with the bug and in return it teaches him something about the meaning of life. Frost personifies the bug in the line, "To express how much it didn't want to die." He again personifies the bug by saying that it "ran with terror." He tells how the bug, at first tries to run in an attempt to preserve its life and them accepts its fate and waits in acceptance of what is about to come. This is illustrated by the line, "It faltered; I could see it hesitate; Then in the middle of the open sheet, Cower down in desperation to accept, Whatever I accorded it of fate."

"'A Considerable Speck' was written after Frost had watched his sister die of a long, prolonged, type of fever (Pritchard, 1994). His description of the plight of the bug is much as Frost may have seen the plight of his sister in the battle against the disease."

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