Robert Frost’s Birches

Although Robert Frost was born in San Fransisco, he called the North Eastern United States his childhood home because he moved to Massachusetts with his mother, after his father’s death. Robert Frost had superior schooling growing up, and even went on to study at Harvard University, though he left Harvard before attaining his degree. Frost married Elinor White and had six children, while he worked as a teacher, writing poetry on the side. Initially during his poetry career, prestigious magazines like The Atlantic Monthly turned down his poetry. In 1912, when Frost was 39, he moved his family to England, where he established himself among great poets of the time. While in England, Robert Frost published two collections of poetry, which gained him widespread notoriety.

After Robert Frost returned to the United States two years later, the same magazine who rejected his poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, called upon Frost to submit his work. He submitted the same poetry they previously rejected. Robert Frost eventually became the unofficial poet laureate of the United States, and went on to read his poetry at such prestigious events as the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, and produced his famous poem, “Mending Wall,” with Germany’s Berlin wall as the historical backdrop. Many people even quote the last line of the poem, “Good fences make good neighbors,” as a proverbial saying in our society. His poem, “Birches,” is one of his most famous poems, in which he examines the possibility of childhood and recollection, through the image of a bent branch of a birch tree.

In the poem, “Birches”, the speaker opens with the line, “When I see birches bend to left and right / Across the lines of straighter darker trees/ I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.” The speaker admits that ” swinging them does not bend them down to stay / ice storms do that.” The beauty of “Birches” folds out in the speaker’s description of the birches when loaded with ice during the winter, and the simile of comparing the bowed branches to young girls “on hands and knees that throw their hair / Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.” Robert Frost’s poetic beauty lies in his simple, realistic portrayal of nature and objects in nature, and their relation to us.

The speaker goes back to talking about the imaginary boy, swinging on the birches,” Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, / Whose only play was what he found himself, / Summer or winter, and could play alone.” Robert Frost captures perfectly the rural life, and the role nature plays in the rural childhoods. This is why “Birches” has always been my favorite poem. Robert Frost exhibits the poetic gift of capturing a moment, the sense of possibility that exists in childhood. Toward the close of the poem, the speaker gives a life philosophy that “Earth is the right place for love.” The speaker would like to climb a birch tree toward Heaven, and delivers what I would contend is the best line of the poem, the last line, “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. In our lives, we should return to those moments of innocence from our childhood, when life was full of possibility and we reveled in the beauty of nature. We all can recall some of our fondest memories from childhood being in nature, simply enjoying a childhood summer. Robert Frost captures this beautiful simplicity in his poem, “Birches” and it will continue to be enjoyed by readers for it’s poetic quality, the capturing of a moment, and the exploration of childhood ambition and possibility.