I need help with anylyzing the poem My NOvember Guest.

My November Guest
by Robert Lee Frost

My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted grady
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so ryly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell he so,
And they are better for her praise.


Thanks

Lynn, begin your analysis by deciding what the poem means to you. Take each stanza and decide what Frost is trying to say here. Then make an outline of the essay. You may wish to use these topics:

1. Language
2. Tone
3. Rhyme
4. Meaning
5. Effect on the reader

Once you have an outline choose specific quotes from the poem to illustrate your personal observations. Good luck, and let us know how this turns out.

Les

Reposted to fix typos.


MY Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane. 5

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted gray
Is silver now with clinging mist. 10

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why. 15

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise. 20


Frost, by his own admission, was fond of saying one thing while meaning another. Ask yourself if Sorrow is really a person, and if not, what is being personified.

thanks

Well, what is the Sorrow mentioned? Melancholy? Or a real (female) person?

He's personifying melancholy. It's not a real person.

Les

I think it's Seasonal Affective Disorder myself. Frost probably could have used a sun lamp.

pam

Thank you to everyone help helped. I got my grade back Friday and this is the first time I'm able to get on the computer. I got a 95 on my project. Thanks again.

Well done, Lynn - you obviously worked very hard on it.

Hi, I recognize your needs are met already.

Nobody seems to have researched to learn that Frost wrote most of his poetry to and about his wife and that he is likely referring to her in this poem. But of course, it's part of the beauty of it that he's referring to a real person as well as personifying. But think of all the variations of meaning My Sorrow has when you consider that he's referring to his wife.

his sadness for her?
her being the receptacle for his sadness?
He being the cause of her sadness
his containment and empathy for her sadness


go googling if you'd like to read comments from those more knowledgeable than I

:)

Frost wrote most of his poetry to and about his wife

This is the first time I have heard that. Do you have any more examples? Surely his more famous ones, such as Mending Wall, Road Not Taken, Stopping By Woods, and Out, Out have different themes? Which ones specifically are written about his wife? Sure, any of them could have been written TO her, but it would be difficult to support such a contention.

You can't believe everything you read, Hugh. I agree that this poem could be interpreted that way, but to say Frost wrote "everything" to his wife is
ridiculous.

Here's an example:

Once by the Pacific
by Robert Lee Frost

The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last *Put out the Light* was spoken.


Les