The Meaning of Life in Robert Frost's "Poems"

Our journey of life does not last long. As we travel silently to the destination of our death, the happy moments in our life will never be regained. Robert Frost is an American poet who is famous for his portrait of nature and its connection to an important theme in his poems. In his poems "A Prayer in Spring" and "A Time to Talk", Frost uses meaningful symbols and metaphors to develop the theme of enjoying the pleasures in our life.

In the poem "A Prayer in Spring", meaningful symbols and metaphors are used in Frost's lively and beautiful portrait of nature. The spring is a symbol for the happiness in our life. However, happiness in our life does not last long, just as "the springing of the year" (1). In spring, although "the flowers" and "happy trees give us pleasure", they only last for a short period of time. Similarly, the happiness in our life is slowly slipping out of our hands as time flies. The only thing we can do is to enjoy the simple pleasures in our life. Metaphors are also being used to develop the theme of the poem. While we try to enjoy our life, "the uncertain harvest" is on our way and "keep us here" (3). This "uncertain harvest" is a metaphor for the goals that are not achieved in our life (3). We always try to achieve many goals and forget to enjoy the pleasures of our life. If we worry too much about these unachieved goals and "think so far away", we will not be able to enjoy our life to the fullest before it comes to the end (2). Clearly, Frost develops the main idea that we should enjoy our life while we have it and not worry about tomorrow.

The meaningful symbols and metaphors are also used by Frost to develop the theme in his poem "A Time to Talk". After his friend wants a talk, the speaker puts away his work and "look[s] around on all the hills [he hasn't] hoed" before he goes to his friends. Similarly to the previous poem, "the hills [he hasn't] hoed" is a metaphor for the goals that are not achieved in his life. The speaker has to make a very difficult decision of either continue to work hard to achieve these goals or talk to his friend who needs help. The speaker chooses the latter because his friend is more valuable to him than those unachieved goals. To a certain extent, putting away our work to talk to our friend is a way to enjoy our life. When we talk to our friends, we enjoy the pleasures of having a true friend who will go through many hardships with us in our life. At the end of the poem, the speaker "go[es] up the stone wall" to talk to his friend (8). The stone wall that the speaker overcomes is a symbol for the barrier between our friends and us. This communication barrier is a result of our pursuit of unachieved goals. When we work hard to achieve these goals, we would not be able to have time to talk to our friends and enjoy our life. Often time we do not realize that friendship and happiness in our life are much more important than the goals that we dedicate our life to achieve. Accordingly, this poem also develops the theme of enjoying the pleasures in our life through the use of symbols and metaphors.

Through meaningful symbols and metaphors, the poems "A Prayer in Spring" and "A Time to Talk" develop the main theme that sometimes we should just put away our work and enjoy the valuable friendship and simple pleasures in our life. Life is a precious but transient gift from God. We should enjoy our life to the fullest before it vanishes in the dust of history.

Frost, Robert. "The Poetry of Robert Frost: the Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged". Owl Book.