Analysis of Robert Frosts An Old Mans Winter Night

What is the goal in a poem? Why do writers write? Most poems are an attempt to pass on a message, to give a moral, or in any case, to communicate in one way or another. An example of a writer doing this in a poem may be seen in An Old Mans Winter Night, by Robert Frost. Robert Frost (1874-1963) wrote An Old Mans Winter Night, perhaps his most well conceived work and published it in the book Mountain Interval, released in 1920 as a fine peak to his career. The poem tells the story of the last night before an old mans death. This man is portrayed as being lonely, and without meaning to anyone except for himself. The old man seems to realize this in a certain point in the poem, and decides that he no longer wants to live. He then goes to†¦show more content†¦For him to be able to see outside he could simply have tilted the light towards the window, yet, one may understand that this metaphor shows that he is either unwilling to open up to others, or is afraid of what he may then see. He may have been intimidated by the out of doors which looked darkly in at him. This continues with the idea that he was only a light to himself because in tilting the light towards himself, he sees his reflection in the window rather than what may have been beyond the window. However, had he illuminated them so that he could see outside, they would no longer be darkly looking in at him. Frost then writes: A quiet light, and then not even that. One may speculate from this line that Frost is telling us that even the old man has lost touch with himself, and no longer cares about his own existence. Frost may possibly be calling our attention to this line with the eye-rhyme between what and that. In the next few lines, the old man dies: The log that shifted with a jolt / Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted, / And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept. Perhaps the log shifting, breaking, and going out represented his light permanently going out as well. This link m ay be made with the repetition of the word shifted; the log shifts, and then the man shifts. In these lines there is also alliteration with the words still slept. Frost may have been drawing our attention to this to be sure that the death of the old man wouldShow MoreRelatedEssay about Isolation and Nature in the Works of Robert Frost3175 Words   |  13 PagesIsolation and Nature in the Works of Robert Frost During the height of Robert Frost’s popularity, he was a well-loved poet who’s natural- and simple-seeming verse drew people - academics, artists, ordinary people both male and female - together into lecture halls and at poetry readings across the country.1 An eloquent, witty, and, above all else, honest public speaker, Frost’s readings imbued his poetry with a charismatic resonance beyond that of the words on paper, and it is of little