Biblical Allusions in Robert Frost’s Poetry
Robert Lee Frost claimed to be an atheist.[1] However, if a reader were to look closely at his work, there are many allusions to the Bible and Christianity throughout the timeline of his poetry. If someone is truly an atheist, they do not believe God exists. If someone is agnostic, they do not know if God exists.[2] For Robert Frost to truly not believe in God, he sure does mention him frequently and alludes to someone that supposedly, doesn’t exist. It leads a person to question why? Is this a way of expressing Frost’s questioning of the faith? While living from 1874-1963 was Frost simply trying to attract a certain audience for the time period?[3] Or is it merely background knowledge coming to light in his work? There is no way of knowing for sure, but let’s start by taking a deeper look, into the biblical allusions in Robert Frost’s poetry.
Perhaps the most obvious example of biblical allusions in Robert Frost’s work is in “Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same,” a pastoral sonnet about Adam and Eve’s love story. A pastoral poem is a poem dealing with nature and a sonnet is a poem with exactly 14 lines. Adam and Eve were the first humans God ever created and they lived in the garden of Eden. Sin came into the world when they ate the apple. As a result, Adam and Eve were banished from the garden and the relationship between God and humanity was forever changed. In line two of the sonnet, the narrator refers to the “garden,” and in line three specifically uses the name “Eve.” It couldn’t be clearer that Frost is referring to the story of Adam and Eve.[4]
Matthew Fike shares a powerful idea in an article published in 1991 and later shared on English Illinois website; “If the poem is a lament, Adam resembles Everyman in the manner of the fallen poet: Adam recalls paradise but cannot forget the Fall; Frost mourns the loss of joy in marriage even as he remembers its bitterness.” It could be argued that the poem is a lament because of the overall tone and message of the sonnet. Fike’s point makes the connection from the biblical story to Robert Frost’s own life, then connects it to every reader’s own life. Fike later goes on in the article to argue that we view the world through the person we love. Robert Frost’s wife died in 1938 and his son Carol committed suicide in 1940. This poem was published four years later. Frost could be using the example of Adam and Eve to explain his own feelings. The pain or fall, of losing his own wife and the burden of grief, but the beauty of knowing he will never be the same because of her but in a good way. “Admittedly an eloquence so soft,” and “she was in their song;” are both examples of this and insinuate the beauty behind the sad tone and nature to the poem.
Robert Frost also alluded to the garden of Eden in his poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” He personifies nature as a woman and is talking about things that in his mind don’t last; “Then leaf subsides to leaf,” “So dawn goes down to day.” In the first line he uses the word “nature”, then in lines two and three, Frost uses the word “Her.” When Frost refers to the garden of Eden, he says “So Eden sank to grief.” One can assume he is referring to the garden grieving after man first sinned against God. Either grieving because of this one specific event or just in general, nothing that perfect and pure can stay in our world for long without being corrupt.
The title, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, is also the last line of the poem. The word gold in this instance can also mean, or symbolize anything “new, young or beautiful.”[5] Every line is basically saying in a similar way; all the good and beautiful things of this world will eventually fade away. There are many things that Frost could have used to make this analogy, but he chose to talk about the garden of Eden as an atheist. This is acknowledging the existence of such people and places, and recognizing the timeless significance of the Bible.
“After Apple-Picking” written in 1914, also has several allusions to the Bible. In lines 1-2 of the poem, there is imagery of a ladder pointing towards heaven. Besides mentioning heaven in the first place, this alludes to the story of Jacob’s Ladder in the book of Genesis chapter 28. After having escaped his jealous brother, Jacob had a dream of a ladder going up to heaven with angels ascending and descending it. God was at the top of the ladder and God told Jacob that he and his descendants would be blessed. It seems like a stretch but by lines 21-22 the reader knows that the narrator is starting to dream, and the connection to the story of Jacob’s ladder is becoming clearer. One could also argue that the symbolism of the apples falling alludes to the Biblical Fall, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, resulting in the fall of man. [6]
When first reading through “Once by the Pacific,” one may think it is simply a poem about a storm coming in along the beachfront. However, upon closer study, especially near the end of the poem, one can see the biblical allusions Frost makes. In Genesis chapter one we are told how God spoke and the everything was created. Line fourteen is an allusion to this; “Before God’s last Put out the light was spoken.” Frost is saying that God’s last words to Earth would be, “Put out the light;” similar to how God spoke and light was created. Not only is this an allusion to creation itself, to God’s existence, but also to His power and to end times. Alfred Kazin refers to this use of power, as to the fear of the Lord mentioned in many places throughout the Bible.[7] Proverbs 1:7 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”[8]
In line ten the reader is warned of “a night of dark intent.” Then in line eleven, it is clarified to “not only a night, an age.” Throughout the Bible, we are told and warned of the last days, especially in Matthew chapter 24, the letter of 2 Timothy, and throughout the book of Revelation. It is clear that Frost has basic background knowledge of the Christian faith. Does this include the end times?
Robert Lee Frost claimed to be an atheist but the biblical allusions in his poetry make you wonder and raise more questions than they answer. How did he know so much about the Bible if he didn’t believe in God? Why write about something he didn’t believe in? Even with the many questions being raised, and even if he wasn’t a Christian, his poetry is continuing to spread the message of the gospel by using biblical allusions that will last the test of time. Every time someone, believer or non-believer, studies deeply into his poetry, they are learning more about the Bible, even if it’s just in small ways.
Robert Frost has made such an influence in our world and in the world of poetry. When you start to type the title of any of these poems into Google, you come up with millions of search results and countless papers written on them. On YouTube, you get audio versions of his poems. Even with the surplus of information, the only way to truly know if Robert Frost accepted Christ as his Savior, despite publicly denying the faith, is to go to heaven and find out yourself. Until then, one can only hope.
Bibliography
Betz, Chelsie. “ChelsieBetz.” ChelsieBetz: My Opinion of the Signifigance of Never Again
Would Birds' Song Be the Same, 9 Mar. 2004, blogs.setonhill.edu/ChelsieBetz/002646.html.
Cline, Austin. “Main Differences Between Atheists and Agnostics.” ThoughtCo, 4 Apr. 2018,
www.thoughtco.com/atheist-vs-agnostic-whats-the-difference-248040.
Fike, Matthew A. “The Explicator.” Www.english.illinois.edu, 1991. pg. 108-112
Parini, Jay. “Listening for God in Unusual Places: The Unorthodox Faith of Robert Frost.”
America Magazine, 28 Feb. 2013, www.americamagazine.org/issue/listening-god
unusual-places.
Shmoop Editorial Team. “Biblical Imagery in After Apple-Picking.” Shmoop, Shmoop
University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/after-apple-picking/biblical-imagery
symbol.html.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Gold in Nothing Gold Can Stay." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc.,
11 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2018.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Robert Frost Timeline of Important Dates." Shmoop. Shmoop
University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 17 Apr. 2018.
Sloan, Gary. “Secular Web Kiosk: Robert Frost: Old Testament Christian or Atheist?” The
Secular Web, 10 Feb. 2003, infidels.org/kiosk/article/Robert-frost-old-testamentChristian
or-atheist-266.html.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. Zondervan, 2005.
[1] Parini, Jay. “Listening for God in Unusual Places: The Unorthodox Faith of Robert Frost.” America Magazine, 28 Feb. 2013, www.americamagazine.org/issue/listening-god-unusual-places.
[2] Cline, Austin. “Main Differences Between Atheists and Agnostics.” ThoughtCo, 4 Apr. 2018, www.thoughtco.com/atheist-vs-agnostic-whats-the-difference-248040.
[3] Shmoop Editorial Team. "Robert Frost Timeline of Important Dates." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 17 Apr. 2018.
[4] Betz, Chelsie. “ChelsieBetz.” ChelsieBetz: My Opinion of the Signifigance of Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same, 9 Mar. 2004, blogs.setonhill.edu/ChelsieBetz/002646.html.
[5] Shmoop Editorial Team. "Gold in Nothing Gold Can Stay." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2018.
[6] Shmoop Editorial Team. “Biblical Imagery in After Apple-Picking.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/after-apple-picking/biblical-imagery symbol.html.
[7] Sloan, Gary. “Secular Web Kiosk: Robert Frost: Old Testament Christian or Atheist?” The Secular Web, 10 Feb. 2003, infidels.org/kiosk/article/robert-frost-old-testament-christian-or-atheist-266.html.
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