Birches

After reading the four poems by Robert Frost, I found the one that I was most interested in was "Birches," so that is the one that I will be writing this blog post about.

Once I finished reading this poem, I realized the reason why I liked it so much was because of the way it was set up. Frost begins it as if he is imagining a reason why the birch branches are all bent the way they are, saying, "I like to think some boy's been swinging them" (line 3), but then almost immediately he seems to argue with himself, saying that it is more likely that ice-storms have been what has bent the trees so. I guess I like this because here he is trying to imagine something sweet and innocent, but then the world and the truth break into his daydreaming, forcing him to admit that his daydreams are very unlikely to be true. It seems to me that this happens to people all of the time, where they will dream about something, but then reality will push its way into their minds, forcing them to admit that what they are dreaming is probably not so or likely to happen.

However, even though reality does get in Frost's way, he doesn't let it taint his daydream. It's almost as if he is saying, "Yes, I realize that the trees were bent because of ice-storms, but wouldn't it be so nice if this was why they were bent instead," and then goes on to create this whole scenario about how little boys were the ones to bend the trees instead. I like that he recognizes reality, but doesn't let it get in the way of his thoughts, or at least that he doesn't let it take over his thoughts.