Week 2 - Birches by Robert Frost

Vocabulary:
"...they are dragged to the withered bracken by the load..." - an area of weedy ferns
"...one by one he subdued his father's trees..." - conquered

Robert Frost's, "Birches,” is a poem written in blank verse in which the lines do not rhyme. Frost focuses on the bend of the branches of the birch trees around him, imagining that they are bent due to young boys swinging on them rather than the recent ice storm. While this initially seems to be the main focus of the poem, I would argue that it actually focuses more on Frost's recollection of his childhood when he himself was once "a swinger of birches,” and how he “dreams to going back to be.” Frost appears to be at a later stage in his life in which he is reminiscing on the good days of his childhood and truly appreciating those little moments of his life.
As the poem continues, the focus tends to shift to show Frost’s more recent feelings in life. He says he’d “like to get away from earth awhile, and then come back to it and begin over,” possibly implying he is nearing the end of his life and believes in the concept of death and rebirth. Several lines later, he mentions that he’d “like to go by climbing a birch tree, and climb black branches up a snow-white trunk toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more…” once again exposing his desire to end his life in a way that his childhood could be revisited. To conclude the poem, he states that climbing the birch was a journey that was “good both going and coming back,” possibly paralleling his life in that all portions of it were truly enjoyable.
This poem particularly hits home for me because my grandfather is currently nearing the end of his life, and everyday he seems to remember further and further back in his life, some days as far back as his childhood. I hope that he too believes that nearly all portions of his life were enjoyable.