BIOGRAPHY OF THE POET
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Robert Frost was born in San
Francisco on March 26, 1874. He moved to New England at the age of eleven and
became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in
Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892, and
later at Harvard, though he never earned a formal degree.
Frost drifted through a string of
occupations after leaving school, working as a teacher, cobbler, and editor of
the Lawrence Sentinel. His first professional poem, "My
Butterfly," was published on November 8, 1894, in the New York newspaper The
Independent.
In 1895, Frost married Elinor Miriam
White, who became a major inspiration in his poetry until her death in 1938.
The couple moved to England in 1912, after their New Hampshire farm failed, and
it was abroad that Frost met and was influenced by such contemporary British
poets as Edward
Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves. While in England, Frost also
established a friendship with the poet Ezra Pound, who helped to promote and publish
his work.
By the time Frost returned to the
United States in 1915, he had published two full-length collections, A Boy's
Will and North of Boston, and his reputation was established. By the
nineteen-twenties, he was the most celebrated poet in America, and with each
new book—including New Hampshire (1923), A Further Range (1936), Steeple
Bush (1947), and In the Clearing (1962)—his fame and honors
(including four Pulitzer Prizes) increased though his work is principally
associated with the life and landscape of New England, and though he was a poet
of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained steadfastly aloof from the
poetic movements and fashions of his time, Frost is anything but a merely
regional or minor poet. The author of searching and often dark meditations on
universal themes, he is a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to
language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his
portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of
ambiguity and irony.
In a 1970 review of The Poetry of
Robert Frost, the poet Daniel
Hoffman describes
Frost's early work as "the Puritan ethic turned astonishingly lyrical and
enabled to say out loud the sources of its own delight in the world," and
comments on Frost's career as The American Bard: "He became a national
celebrity, our nearly official Poet Laureate, and a great performer in the
tradition of that earlier master of the literary vernacular, Mark Twain."
About Frost, President John F.
Kennedy said, "He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse
from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding."
Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont, and died in Boston on January 29, 1963.
THE POEM
Canis
Major
by Robert Frost
The great Overdog,
That heavenly beast
With a star in one eye,
Gives a leap in the east.
He dances upright
All the way to the west
And never once drops
On his forefeet to rest.
I'm a poor underdog,
But tonight I will bark
With the great Overdog
That roams through the dark.
Poetry Analysis
a. Language Style
Language style that is used in this poetry is African-American slang language. It is the language of the African-Americans who usually have lower education in societies. Since the poetry uses slang language, it contains many grammar deviations, such as:
b. Theme
The
theme of poem “Canis Major” is constellation
c. Poetic form
This
poem is some kind of combination between formula poem, in which every line is
begun in the same way or particular kind of word in every line is inserted and
rhymed-verse poem which utilizes both rhyme and rhythm as the poetic devices.
d. Poetic device
·
Rhyme
The
rhyme used in this poem is end rhyme. The rhyme schemes are:
a-b-c-b,
a-b-c-b, a-b-a-b. The numbered lines rhyme in pairs (beast/east, west/rest,
bark/dark).
·
Rhythm
/ v /
1. The
great Overdog,
/ v /
2.
That heavenly beast
V / v
3.
With a star in one eye,
4.
Gives a leap in the east.
Were you to number the lines of the
poem, you'd find that the even- You'd find that Frost varies the precise meter
within the lines (sometimes two anapests (ta-da-DUM ta-da-DUM) and sometimes an
iamb followed by an anapest (ta-DUM ta-da-DUM), but each line contains two
stressed syllables. The choice of meter gives the verse a skipping sort of feel
when read aloud.
Since the line one, three, and five
is run-on lines, it seems that those six lines were originally three lines
because if we continue the word de in the line one, three, and five to
the next lines, there will only be three lines of iambic pentameter. The sentences,
then, will be like this:
When I was home de Sunshine seemed
like gold
When I was home de Sunshine seemed
like gold
Since I come up North de Whole damn
world’s turned cold.
v /
v / v
7 I was a good boy
/ v
/ v /
8 Never done no wrong
/ | v
/ v /
v
9 Yes, I
was a good boy
10 Never done no wrong
The
third feet of line 7 and 9 are not finished, yet continue to the next lines (8
and 10). If we continue it that way, the rhymes will be iambic pentameter and
the lines should be like this:
I
was a good boy, never done no wrong
I
was a good boy, never done no wrong
/ v
/ v / v
11 But this world is weary
/ v
/ v /
v /
12 An’ de road is hard an’ long
Line eleven is trochaic trimeter
while line twelve is trochaic tetrameter, yet, the last foot is unfinished.
v /
v / v
13 I fell in love with
v /
v / v
/
14 A gal I thought was kind
15 I fell in love with
16 A gal I thought was kind
The same as what happens in the
previous stanzas, the third feet of line 13 and 15 are not finished. Line 14
and 16 are iambic trimeter.
v /
v / v
/ v
17 She made me lose ma money
v /
v / v
/
18 An’ almost lose ma mind
Line 17 is almost iambic tetrameter,
yet the last foot is imperfect. Line 18 is iambic trimeter.
/ v
/ v
19 Weary, weary
/ v
/ v /
v /
20 Weary early in de morn
21 Weary, weary,
/ v
/ v /
v /
22 Early, early in the morn
/ v
/ v
23 I’s so weary
v /
v / v
v /
24 I wish I’d never been born
Line
19, 21, and 24 are trochaic dimeter while line 20 and 22 are imperfect (almost)
trochaic tetrameter.
·
Stanza
form
The stanza form of this poem is sestet, which
contains six lines.
·
Repetition
This poem contains so many
repetitions, such as: line 1 and 3 (Shen I was home de), line 2 and 4 (Sunshine
seemed like gold), line 7 and 9 (I was a good boy), line 8 and 10 (Never done
no wrong), line 13 and 15 (I fell in love with), line 14 and 16 (A gal I
thought was kind), line 19 and 21 (Weary, weary), and line 20 and 22 (Early in
the morn).
·
Alliteration
In the third stanza, line 17 (she made me lose ma money), there are some repetition of the same initial
consonant sound of /m/ in the words “made”, “me”, “ma”, and “money.
·
Comparison
Simile
:
The simile occurs in the first stanza, in line 2 and
4: “Sunshine seemed like gold”. The comparison device “like” is used to compare
the sunshine and gold in terms of color (yellow) and the glowing nature of
both.
e.
Messages
and Moral Value
Through this poem, the writer expresses the sadness
that a poor African-American feel because his heart was broken by a girl he
thought was kind. Using the African-American slang language, he tries to raise
the portrayal of African-American life, which is full of rebellion and hunger
for freedom. The rebellion and hunger for freedom are expressed in the
ungrammatical structure. It seems that Hughes (2004) also tries to do the same
thing with the poem. He made his poem rhyming beautifully but does not really
follow the rhyming rule which pays attention to the perfection of feet and
lines. The lines in this poem are identical with Black folk music rhythm, which
consists of songs with a strophic form, which presents successions of lines
where each line is repeated or varied once (Nettl, 2005). According to Nett
(2005), Folk music is commonly played by lower classes and rural population and
closely associated with everyday activities such as ritual, work, love, and
child rearing. By using folk music rhythm, Hughes (2004) once again tries to
raise his community and introduce the culture.
In a love poem like this, Hughes (2004) does not
forget to insert some portrayal about poverty and misery the African-Americans
experience. He somehow wants the world to know the fact, that in
African-American life, money is a critical issue that even a couple can break
their relationship due to it.
The poem also implies the change in the poor boy’s
life. The poor boy thinks that life in the United State is too hard for him
compared to where he origins. Life was so wonderful when he was at his
hometown, like “gold”, but it turns really dark when he came to the United States,
which is expressed in line 6, (de) Whole damn world’s turned cold.
The Comments about “Po’
Boy Blues” and Its Implication in Language Teaching
In conclusion, this poem is very
unique. It combines the beauty of rhyming lines with the slang language. It
also portrays the African-American culture through the folk rhymes and some
story inserted in it. It is suitable to be taught in university level, in a
class which concerns about foreign culture, in this case, African-American
culture. Analyzing the poem, students are exposed to rebellion spirit of the
African-Americans, their culture, and the slang language. We can also use this
poem as a media to teach grammar. By analyzing some sentences and words used
from the poem, the students are expected to be able to point out the incorrect
grammar.
References
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192#sthash.cQ8xrK9p.dpuf
Nettl, Bruno. Folk Music. Microsoft® Encarta® 2006
[DVD]. Redmon, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.
Hughes, Langston. 2004. Langston
Hughes Poem. Classical Poetry Series. (Online),
(www.poemhunter.com., accessed on January 6, 2009).
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