Coleman Rohde

9/29/21

Birches

Frost makes extensive use of imagery, juxtaposition, and alliteration in order to make the

argument that although it is often good for one to find themselves in their imagination but one

should not lose sight of reality. Frost uses imagery, in combination with symbolism, in order to

paint a vivid and bright world of imagination and reality demonstrating the value of both. For

example, when Frost describes the reality of the birches he states, “Soon the sun’s warmth makes

them shed crystal shells / Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust— / Such heaps of

broken glass to sweep away / You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.” Frost paints a

vivid picture of ice falling off branches like reflective crystals which almost magically light up

the world around him, even though this world is in reality, while associating reality with positive

words like heaven. Frost also makes extensive use of alliteration with repetition of the “s” sound.

The alliteration sounds pleasant to the ear which enhances the positive connotation of Frost's

imagery compounded with positive words like heaven. Similarly, when describing the world of

his imagination Frost states, “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 play was

what he found himself” Frost argues that, in some sense, it would be preferable that his

imagination were reality, that a boy had really bent those branches in playing in the woods; a boy

who plays baseball and tends to the cows. This childish play carries with it a positive connotation

which establishes Frost’s imagination as something good. Also, Frost’s imagination almost

seems to be more reminiscent, as if he were, at one point, the boy he speaks of. In this way, Frost

is almost feeling nostalgic about the past, reflecting on his youth and life. Frost even states, “So
was I once myself a swinger of birches.” Thus Frost paints both reality and imagination in a

positive light.

However, Frost does not encourage one to only see one's reality or imagination but rather

experience them both and he uses juxtaposition to achieve this. For example, when Frost

establishes imagery about the reality of the birches, immediately following he establishes

imagery about his imagination about the birches. Like Frost the reader is made to go through

stages of reality and imagination and back into reality and so on. Frost states that, “I'd like to get

away from earth awhile / And then come back to it and begin over. / May no fate willfully

misunderstand me / And half grant what I wish and snatch me away / Not to return. Earth’s the

right place for love” Frost places the act of leaving reality, leaving “earth”, and the act of

returning to reality next to each other. In placing these two ideas so closely together Frost uses

juxtaposition. This highlights the extremes of both acts which is what is done throughout other

sections of the poem as well. In highlighting the extremes Frost effectively demonstrates the

value of both acts as he establishes positive connotations with both reality and imagination

earlier in the poem. Frost is essentially instructing us that imagination can help us to escape but

like imagination, reality can too be beautiful if not ideal.

Frost also uses alliteration in order to enhance imagery and establish the value of both

reality and imagination. For example, Frost states that, “He always kept his poise / To the top

branches, climbing carefully / With the same pains you use to fill a cup” Frost uses alliteration

repeating the “c” sound in order to highlight the rugged and boyish act of climbing a tree, which

Frost describes using extensive imagery. Thus, the alliteration serves to enhance the imagery in

the rugged fashion of the repeated sound. This imagery, in combination with alliteration, paints a

nostalgic picture of childhood which the reader and Frost associate with positivity. Alliteration is
also used to describe reality as well as imagination as seen earlier in this analysis when Frost

describes the ice falling from the branches like the dome of heaven. Thus alliteration is used in

order to highlight and enhance positive imagery which demonstrates the value of imagination

and reality which Frost wants to instill in the reader.