Birches By Robert Frost Questions And Answers (6 Marks Extra Questions) ISC Class 11, 12 English Poems
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6 Marks
1.“Robert Frost is a poet of nature”. With close reference to the quoted lines, describe how nature is represented in the prescribed text “Birches” by Robert Frost.
Ans: Robert Frost is a prominent celebrated poet of American Literature. He is widely anthologized for his surreal description of nature and the much colloquial style of representing the serenity of nature excellence by his words. Similar to Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, The Road Not Taken, After Apple-Picking, Birches is one of the most widely read and well versed Frost poems of all time.
“Robert Frost is a poet of nature” is popularly denoted to him for his immense efforts and zeal to staunchly depict the manmade and natural world, bourgeoisie society, labour class, the scenes and drudgery of the industrial revolution and other topics of importance through his works. In Birches, Frost has used various imageries, symbolism and ambiguity to represent Mother Nature. Firstly, the poem opens with a rural boy imagined swinging on his father’s birches (A Native American tree). The birches are “bend to left and right”.
However, the reason for such bending is shifted to harsh reality i.e only cruel ice-storms could have bent them such. The beautiful depiction of the snow as “such heaps of broken glass” is commendable. Such examples of scenic beauty associated with various literary devices make the poem a much-anthologized piece, cementing Frost as a famous “nature poet” of all times.
2. Describe how the themes of Escapism and human needs are represented in “Birches” by Robert Frost.
Ans: Birches, by Robert Frost, is a widely known poem depicting the theme of escapism and the consequent limits imposed on man by the real world for its existence.
Frost has truly brought this conflict with the reference to a village boy imagined having conquered the birches by bending them “left” and “right”. The reality is contrasted with the poet’s imagination of the boy who by his actions ignites the escapist theme as Frost says “I should prefer to have some boy bend them/ As he went out and in to fetch the cows-/ Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,/ Whose only part was what he found himself..”.
The poet calls oneself the “swinger of birches” and dreams of “going back to be”. However, though the poem has conspicuously shown the various elements of escaping from the real world with harsh ice storms, broken glasses, the inner dome of heaven being fallen, yet he sticks to the reality and states “ I’d like to get away from earth awhile/ And then come back to it and begin over.”. The idea of leaving the world for unknown pleasures and treasures may be desirable but prolonged imagination is haywire. So, the poet suggests: “Earth’s the right place for love: / I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.”
3. Elaborate how the bending of birches is fancifully played by imaginative digressions, with a brief touch to the philosophical ending of the poem ‘Birches’ by Robert Frost.
Ans: The ‘Birches’ commences with an elaborate description of nature’s beauty which the poem has given varied appearances of birches in summer and winter. As the poem opens, the birches are found ‘bend to left and right/ Across the lines of straighter darker trees’. It may seem to be nature’s catastrophe bent down by ice-storms but the narrator heightening the literary appeals, imagines it to be the work of a rural boy, whose only play was to “One by one he subdued his father’s trees/ By riding them down over and over again/Until he took the stiffness out of them.”
While referring to the ice-storms, Frost goes on describing the birches and their presence in different seasons “loaded with ice a sunny winter morning/after a rain.” Then he goes on describing the events after the dreadful storm, how the snow-covered barks of birches crystallize forming glass-like appearances. Before long, the sun above heats the ice-covered branches and causes the fine ice crystals to fall and break, like the broken pieces of glass. These falling and breaking make us wonder if only some heavenly sphere has shattered and fallen to earth. Such action leaves the trees bent for a year, so that one may think young girls bend and drape their hairs to dry when they toss them forward on their knees and hands.
It is at this time when he returns to the actual scenario of concern and again equates birches’ bending with a rural boy riding on them. Subsequent descriptions follow where the narrator recalls his swinging experiences. However, reality knocks on the door at the concluding lines when he retorts “I’d like to get away from earth awhile/And then come back to it and begin over.” Although the theme of escapism into natural beauty is eloquently displayed, yet ending on a philosophical note, he gauges us the importance of being in reality as “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches”.
4. Briefly describe what recollection of past experiences is made by the narrator in “Birches” by Robert Frost.
Ans: “Birches” by Robert Frost is a widely recognized verse where the major literary devices have been distinctly stitched to portray a very naturalistic but philosophical poem. It explores children’s world and their innocent capability to find joy and wonders in minute moments of life. Here, the speaker transverses ice-covered birch trees that have bent down “left and right”. Thus, the speaker equates with a young boy having climbed on them in a way conquering nature and swinging on them.
The narrator dares not think them bend down by some ‘ice-storms’. Instead, he fancies and relishes his pristine memories or ecstasies of childhood through his form of a boy swinging them. As we move forth, a vivid description of nature and the outcome of the ice-storm is described, whence the broken pieces of ice resembles a “heap of broken glass”, which one would think is like “the inner dome of heaven had fallen.”
Frost has always been appreciated for its charming rural portrayal. Here, the boy of concern is averse to the urban pleasures like playing baseball; instead he swings on the limbs of Birches until his joy is full to brim.
5. “Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.” Concerning any other work of Robert Frost, briefly describe how apt are the quoted line.
Ans: The following lines are taken from the poem “Birches” by Robert Frost. It is a refined work presenting us with the idea of escapism and individualism, which one would find only in the lap of nature. However, the narrator isn’t entirely carried away by the sweetness of these moments, instead the boy, a replica of his mind deals with “rationality” of thought; and while he accepts the pleasures, he lastly embraces the truth of reality, though with a bitter experience, but declares:
“I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree, ….. But dipped its top and set me down again./ That would be good both going and coming back.”
The line quickly takes us back to another masterful work of Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. The narrator of this poem is stuck between the ecstasy and beauty of the “tall, dark woods” and is left to admire their presence on the longest night of the year. The enchanting stature of the woods makes his escape from the sorrow and tiredness of the world yet only for a while. Bearing a similar resemblance to Birches, the narrator returns to his worldly duties and states “And miles to go before I sleep,/ And miles to go before I sleep.”
These two poems justify the very essence of one’s duties and roles in this world, though harsh, yet in poet’s terms we “don’t know where it’s likely to go better.”