Analysis of imagery and meaning in robert frost's poem 'in white'.
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Transcript of Analysis of imagery and meaning in robert frost's poem 'in white'.
ANALYSIS OF IMAGERY AND MEANING IN ROBERT
FROST'S DESIGN
Amer Mahmood yousaf
ENGLISH DEPTT.
Govt. Islamia College Civil lines Lahore.
A dented spider like a snow drop white
On a white Heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of lifeless satin cloth -
Saw ever curious eye so strange a sight? -
Portent in little, assorted death and blight
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth? -
The beady spider, the flower like a froth,
And the moth carried like a paper kite.
What had that flower to do with being white,
The blue prunella every child's delight.
What brought the kindred spider to that height?
(Make we no thesis of the miller's plight.)
What but design of darkness and of night?
Design, design! Do I use the word aright?
Frost's poem "In White" is the first draft of what
became to be the poem "Design". The differences are
minimal, only some grammar changes that don't
affect the overall meaning of the poem.
Robert Frost's poem Design depicts a white spider preying on
a moth. In this two stanza poem, Frost uses this image as a
metaphor for the world made in God's image and the evil that
seems to have infiltrated it. Frost uses the relationship between
the "white heal-all" and the white spider to ask whether God's
design truly applies universally. That is to say, does God's
worldly design apply to something as minute as the workings of
a spider? If it does not, does God's design apply to the actions of
people?
THEME
Robert Frost's poem Design depicts a white spider preying on
a moth. In this two stanza poem, Frost uses this image as a
metaphor for the world made in God's image and the evil that
seems to have infiltrated it. Frost uses the relationship between
the "white heal-all" and the white spider to ask whether God's
design truly applies universally. That is to say, does God's
worldly design apply to something as minute as the workings of
a spider? If it does not, does God's design apply to the actions of
people?
The first stanza of Frost's poem Design sets the scene and tone of the poem
in its entirety. The poem begins innocently enough stating "I found a dimpled
spider, fat and white." There is no apparent underlying meaning to this, just
that the speaker happened to stumble upon a spider, a mere image. The
second and third lines of the stanza continue to set the scene saying, "On a
white heal-all, holding up a moth like a white piece of rigid satin cloth." Frost's
use of the term rigid begins to shift the tone of the poem, as rigid carries a
cadaverous connotation. The tone darkens further as Frost refers to the scene
in the next line as "Assorted characters of death and blight." Here, as the
spider is the main player in the scene described, Frost characterizes the spider
as a "character" with evil intentions.
Frost continues this notion in the following two lines saying "Mixed ready to
begin the morning right, like the ingredients of a witches broth." Frost's
referral to the spider's work as "the ingredients of a witch's broth" implies that
the spider's ritual is very methodical, yet done with some form of wicked
pleasure. Frost easily could have referred to the spider's "morning right" as a
sort of recipie. However, his comparisons of the spider's morning ritual to that
of a "witch's broth" furthers the evil connection. Frost ends the stanza outlines
the "ingredients" of said "broth" listing "A snow-drop spider, a flower like a
froth, and dead wings carried like a paper kite." This image of "dead wings"
cements the idea that the intentions of the spider are of a malevolent nature
and thus resentful.
The second stanza of his poem reveals Frost's underlying
meaning. He asks three pointed questions: "What had that flower to
do with being white, the wayside blue and innocent heal-all? What
brought the kindred spider to that height, then steered the white
moth thither in the night? What but design of darkness to appall? If
design govern a thing so small." These questions, while seemingly
referring to the scene of the spider and its prey, boil down to the
poem's underlying meaning: How can evil exist in a world if the
world in it's entirety is governed by God? Delving deeper, one can
see that this question informs the first stanza as well as the last.
The spider, initially described as being white, the color of
innocence, reveals itself wicked. Frost uses the image of this white
spider on a "white heal-all" as a metaphor for the evil that is
tarnishing the world that is supposedly created in God's image. That
is to say, Frost uses the "white heal-all" as a metaphor for the world
as created in God's image, the moth being included in this
supposedly innate innocence, while the spider represents the
malevolence hidden within it.
The choice of flower, a "white heal-all," further adds a layer of irony as death
is occurring on a flower with medicinal capabilities. This irony further informs
the metaphor, and this the meaning of this image. Frost ultimately asks
whether God could really be governing the actions of this spider, a minutia in
the world as a whole. If God does not govern this workings of this spider, who
is to say that God governs and oversees the workings of people? The spider
and the moth, then, both represent peoples in the world, the flower
representing the Earth. This idea begins to counter all notions of God we have,
that perhaps God is not really looking over our every action. Perhaps people
are as minute in his eyes as the spider: something to be overlooked.