Birches Analysis

Mountain Interval1916When 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.

But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.

Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them

Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning

After a rain. They click upon themselves

As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured

As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.

Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells

Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away

You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,

And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed

So low for long, they never right themselves:

You may see their trunks arching in the woods

Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground,

Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair

Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.

But I was going to say when Truth broke in

With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm,

I should prefer to have some boy bend them

As he went out and in to fetch the cows--

Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,

Whose only play was what he found himself,

Summer or winter, and could play alone.

One by one he subdued his father's trees

By riding them down over and over again

Until he took the stiffness out of them,

And not one but hung limp, not one was left

For him to conquer. He learned all there was

To learn about not launching out too soon

And so not carrying the tree away

Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise

To the top branches, climbing carefully

With the same pains you use to fill a cup

Up to the brim, and even above the brim.

Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,

Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

And so I dream of going back to be.

It's when I'm weary of considerations,

And life is too much like a pathless wood

Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs

Broken across it, and one eye is weeping

From a twig's having lashed across it open.

I'd like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over.

May no fate willfully misunderstand me

And half grant what I wish and snatch me away

Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:

I don't know where it's likely to go better.

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

.: :.

Its about life and whatever that means to you is differnt then me or Robert frost. But really, its just about life. How one minute you are so carefree swinging on trees almost monkey like, nothing to worry about, nothing. While the next life has you in its fist scratchy away, no mercy, and you really wish almost that you were never here to began with. But really it doesnt matter, none of it, cause its life, and thats the way it is. What matters most of life is love and there is no other way to experience it then along with pain and hand in hand with life.

| Posted on 2008-08-13 | by a guest

.: :.

I grew up on a farm by myself (both of my parents worked, my siblings were much older than me) in the age before cable and satellite TV and this poem has a special meaning for me. It goes to show that children don't need the things that we, as adults, think we need or even that children need, in order to enjoy their lives. Taken away from society, from other children, the boy in this poem is forced to find his own way to be a child with the only things he has to do so. I know the exact feeling. I wish I could go back to those days. Life becomes more complicated when you are given more options, more avenues to approach it. As most have said, Frost seems to want to go back to those days with the wisdom he has now, but I feel almost as if - because I feel so myself - the wisdom he has now wouldn't permit him to enjoy such a solitary childhood, because he would know that there was more out there. He just wants to be a bender of birches, to be a child, with a child's mind and a child's outlook on the world. The wisdom he is showing is that we spend our whole lives looking for happiness, but it's because a lot of us have had it and grown away from it. We long to go back.

| Posted on 2008-07-17 | by a guest

.: Authority etc :.

frost places more value on imagination and play than he does on the "truth" which is representative of authority and the ills of adults. its about truth and how its relative.

| Posted on 2008-04-27 | by a guest

.: :.

This is a great poem to read, at first it is a little hard to understand so i thought it was a very boring poem and it implies to a person childhood to adulthood and it also talks about getting acceptance with God and death

| Posted on 2008-04-21 | by a guest

.: God, Heaven, Death :.

this poem reveals a sense of maturity, and getting older..he speaks of his younger days as a boy but also mentions climbing up to heaven, which is mostly likely talking about getting close God. he also speaks of returning, which insinuates that he is not ready to die, but wants to familiarize himself with the thought of god, heaven and death, which once shows maturity and reveals age.

| Posted on 2008-03-11 | by a guest

.: Rebirth :.

I see this as Frost's way of telling us that such a strong force as life can never disappear, only be reborn in another time.

| Posted on 2008-03-05 | by a guest

.: :.

its about a dude that want to go closer to heaven nd den come bk... he doesnt wanna die he jus wants to get as close to god as possible

| Posted on 2008-01-15 | by a guest

.: Sex and other ideas :.

I am writing a paper on this poem, some one asked about how the poem related to sex. I think this is (aside from the simpler interpretation of the poem as a ode to childhood)probably the best interpretation. Masturbation isnt too far either. A few important points to consider. The family of trees which we commonly call birches is Betula, a word which means virgin in Hebrew. Also, think about the meaning of the word "swinging." Often used slangily to describe acts of sexual promiscuity, maybe even conquest. Once you get the idea into your head that this is a poem about playful conquest and "destiffening" of virgins - its hard to get out. I think the ice storms are referring to the natural challenging events that happen to make a woman free herself - yet Frost likes to think that this change comes from bored country boys who "swing" their branches until they eventually buckle.

Also, the part about his eye being hit my branches - birch twigs or whatever you call them were a common tool in punishment. In that way they represent authority.

I agree entirely with the interpretation thats more easily read. He wishes to retreat back to those simple days, where off the ground he was close to heaven..etc. But I think part of what makes this poem so fabulous is that they all exist side by side. I think they are all correct and that Frost intended this ambiguity. Frost is a dark complex poet, even his playful poems like this usually have a deeper meaning - although they seem immediately readable and accessible. Yet in every frost poem Ive read there are darker themes.

I think in a way, this poem is about all the things that birches represent to him. Virgins, childhood playgrounds, authority etc. In order to fully appreciate the poem, one must look into each interpretation - without trying to find which one is "right." I think they all are - intentionally.

The one way that Frost has completely perplexed me, is why he says "his Fathers trees" - whats up with that?

Any ideas? It seems to me that everything else can have multiple meanings, be construed to support every interpretation. "His fathers trees" seems to support only the literal interpretation. Why does he feel the need to set himself in competition against his father? Is this some Freudian thing?

| Posted on 2007-12-06 | by a guest

.: stages in life :.

i also agree with the poem being childhood,but with more meanings the poem talks of the stages from childhood to adulthood when you are "left alone" freedom also nat this age but when it comes to old age,it talks of toughness of life,"wrickles","cobwebs" and he just wants to disappear,take a break to avoid distess.the poem also talks of exploitation of mankind that he wants to take a break

| Posted on 2007-11-27 | by a guest

.: His Viewpoints on God? :.

I think this poem also has some of Frost's views on God. He sees climbing birches as an escape from life. I think he views climbing birches as being close to God, and by saying he always wants to come down means he either doesn't want to die (which is the closest to God you can get) or he always wants to go down because he isn't fully sure if there is a God or not.

Can anyone else see this correlation?

| Posted on 2007-09-17 | by a guest

.: birching :.

clearly this poem has juventide themes. keep in mind that the birch rod was a well-known symbol of authority and schoolhouse discipline in new england colonial (and post-colonial) culture. consider this when re-reading the poem, and you'll begin to evoke the true meaning.

| Posted on 2007-05-23 | by a guest

.: Masturbation :.

I am studying Robert Frost for my English A Level exams, which are in 8 hours, and with my English teacher being a past-examiner, I can tell you it would do you well to write about the different interpretations, even if you don't agree with them. I believe that the poem could be relating to masturbation, but who other than Frost himself knows? All we can do is interpret, but the different interpretations shows a wider knowledge of the poem, as long as each point is supported.

I believe that the poem is about how Frost longs to relive his childhood, with the maturity, understanding and appreciation that he has developed as he grew into an adult. There are sexual connotations within the poem, suggesting that the boy is lonely so he results to masturbation, 'he took the stiffness out of them'.

The monochrome imagery illustrates how children see things so simply, in just black and white, 'black branches up a snow-white trunk'. The last line of the poem is promoting the uncomplicated nature of childhood, 'One could do worse than be a swinger of branches.'

| Posted on 2007-05-21 | by a guest

.: Masturbation :.

I am studying Robert Frost for my English A Level exams, which are in 8 hours, and with my English teacher being a past-examiner, I can tell you it would do you well to write about the different interpretations, even if you don't agree with them. I believe that the poem could be relating to masturbation, but who other than Frost himself knows? All we can do is interpret, but the different interpretations shows a wider knowledge of the poem, as long as each point is supported.

I believe that the poem is about how Frost longs to relive his childhood, with the maturity, understanding and appreciation that he has developed as he grew into an adult. There are sexual connotations within the poem, suggesting that the boy is lonely so he results to masturbation, 'he took the stiffness out of them'.

The monochrome imagery illustrates how children see things so simply, in just black and white, 'black branches up a snow-white trunk'. The last line of the poem is promoting the uncomplicated nature of childhood, 'One could do worse than be a swinger of branches.'

| Posted on 2007-05-21 | by a guest

.: Sex :.

I do not get how this relates to sex in any way or form. Can the people who talked about it please explain further because i am now confused. I used to think that it was about a childs childhood to adulthood and everything that he wants to do in his life, but he just feels like he need to take a break from it all for just a little while. I'm writing an analysis for my Pre-IB class and some of the comments such as the "SEX" ones confuses my interpretation of the poem.

| Posted on 2007-05-16 | by a guest

.: How does it relate? :.

Excuse me, but if the first few commenters ever come back to this site, could you guys please tell me how this poem relates to masturbation? I was reading your comments and I saw that you(pl.) had mentioned the relation of masturbation and this poem and I honestly can say that I do not see how it applies. Perhaps I am not as evolved, (shall we call it that?), and I just dont understand. Please do calm this matter in my mind by replying. I will come back to this website to check. Thank you. --M155c437

| Posted on 2007-05-15 | by a guest

.: BiRcHeS :.

ok.. so i am studying a fair quantity of Frost's poetry for my A level!! Birches is of course one of the poems that is in our anthology, i came across all of the comments left by previous visitors and have to say that i agree with them all. even the masturbation interpration, because poetry is interprataion and there is no right or wrong as long asit can be justified, remembering what Frost wrote about backs up the masturbation theory, he oftern wrote about sex and natures, esspeccially woods, for he and his close friend oftern went for walks in the woods and more oftern than not got lost, this poem therefore links to 'stopping by woods....' and the road not taken'


| Posted on 2007-05-03 | by a guest

.: Frost :.

I, by no means, am a great interpreter of poetry, but I would like to point out that Robert Frost's poems almost always have two-sides. The first and most obvious side is the face value, that he is reminicisng about his childhood and swinging on trees. Is that wrong? Clearly, No, but there is more to it than just that. There is also the underlying meaning of sex or masturbation. I never pick up the underlying meanings myself, but I knew there would be more to it than just missing being a kid. So to get a true understand about how Mr. Frost works, you need to look at both sides of the poem.

| Posted on 2007-03-29 | by a guest

.: the poem :.

well... i dont have a whole lot that i have to say to get my point across, the only thing i have to say is that all these interpritations are good, but not correct... the one true interpritation of this poem is the use of masturbation by the arthur, you can look at any part of this poem and see the reality in its meaning. This is just a joke of sorts written by our dear human masturbating friend, robert frost

| Posted on 2007-03-23 | by a guest

.: Birches BY NELL GORDON! :.

Birches
Robert Frost

Poem Analysis – Nell Gordon


This poem, Birches, by Robert Frost, is really a poem not to be missed. It is written with great thought and consideration, almost an insight into Frost’s mind at the time he wrote down this awe-inspiring piece of text. This poem does not rhyme, but that seems to make this poem all the more truthful and beautiful in a complex, gleeful undertone. Robert Frost reminisces about his lost childhood, how his only entertainment was in himself. However, he plays this out as he imagines a child has been bending the birch trees that he stumbles upon one day, instead of actually using a first-person perspective of himself as a child.
“I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.”
The entire poem is spent trying to create an image in your mind of these twisting, slim trees.
According to the story, Frost finds birch trees which are bent in odd angles. Though he knows that it was ice-storms that have cracked the wood, he prefers to think that a farm-boy has been swinging on the branches until the trees are bent.
There are many interesting writing techniques in this poem, making it all the more effective. When he speaks of the birches being covered with ice from Winter, and melting slowly in the Spring air, he described this as enamel that cracks from the tree’s glistening surface.
“As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.”
Afterwards, when these shards of ice have fallen, he describes the pieces as “such heaps of broken glass to sweep away”, comparing the shattered ice to glass.
These metaphors are affective to the overall reading of the poem, because they help you picture the heavy coating of ice, “enamel”, on the trees, and how it breaks sharply and viciously, the essence of Winter to make the birch trees bend. As previously stated, this poem was created to give you a perfect visual image of the woods, and these descriptive metaphors easily give you a true feeling of the transition from Winter into Spring, and how the change damages the frail trees.
It also includes similes, like when stated that “life is too much like a pathless wood”, making life seem like a wild-goose chase, following no path, lost.
Another fine example of a simile would be when he relates the bending birch trees to girls throwing their hair about in an attempt to dry it out.
“Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.”
The similes are effective because, like the first stated, it brings out the theme that life is rather hard to follow, and it’s a lot easier as a young child, only worrying about entertainment. The second simile is effective, as it is a good example to prove the happy undertone to this tale, though it is about something seemingly so gruesome a tale of these poor trees cracking under the pressure of merciless Winter. When it describes the trees as girls trying to dry their hair in the sun, it makes you smile just imagining such a playful image, therefore eliminating any thoughts about the bent trees being mangled, instead of merely ‘twirled’ into their bent shape.
This poem also contains one personification, describing ‘Truth’ as a woman disrupting the comical image of a child swinging on the birch trees, with the correct, merciless ways of the ice-storm.
“But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm,”
This shows that Frost would much rather prefer thinking of a child bending the trees, instead of the horrid Winter. This is effective because, though the actual idea of ‘Truth’ destroying the gleeful image of a child swinging is depressing, it seems to relate Truth to a nagging woman, ruining any joy that imagination can create. This once again, novel image also adds to the happy undertone, so gloriously jubilant despite the poem’s other, first-meaning of sadly-bent trees.
“Cracks and crazes” is an example of alliteration in this poem, describing the ice-covering breaking open. This is the only one of it’s kind in ‘Birches’ and it is effective because it uses onomatopoeia, “cracks”, and is also personification when it says that the stir of heat and wind “crazes” the “enamel”, when it seeks to break it open and apart.
The one example of repetition in this poem is “over and over”, describing the child repeatedly riding on the birch trees until they bend. It shows how every day, maybe more, the child would have found himself with nothing else to do but swing on trees. It also describes how slowly, over a lot of time of weighting down the trees, they managed to bend, and describes why.

Overall, this poem has many hidden meanings, not first realised with a glance. It’s theme could be argued, but it seems most likely that it is how humans are constantly testing the boundaries of what we can do- Like the child bending the trees, stretching to Heaven, only to regret it after they are bent and broken. This could be perceived as the image of our future, how we are slowly using all our resources, like the birch tree, and only at the end we will realise that we should never have started, and not interfered with nature. It could also be, as Frost reminisces over his lost childhood, a theme of to appreciate the good days while they are within reach as a child, not rush to grow up, when we will suddenly wish to be young again.

All the poetic devices in this poem, such as metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration and repetition, add to the feel of the story, enhance it’s features and give you a feeling of empathy towards everything mentioned, such as the real brutal truth of Winter, instead of just fluffy snow. They help you understand the themes and deep meanings hidden underneath the happy undertone, and help us to understand ourselves in a more


| Posted on 2007-03-20 | by a guest

.: .: birches :. :.

ok so this is a poetry analysis that we had to write for 9th Grade English Honors... don't take it too seriously. but i figured that other people who were just looking for a general idea of the poem would be able to use this more than one of those crazy long ones. so feel free to copy and paste, i don't mind. (oh yeah, and to whoever wrote the thing about masturbation... i totally agree i just didn't want to put that in my paper because my teacher is this crazy devout christian and i knew she'd flip. but it's a sex poem i swear.)

READING I:
The title of this literary work is “Birches,” and was written by Robert Frost. Frost’s intended audience would be anyone with an interest in nature. The poem is very easy to understand, and therefore could be enjoyed really by any audience. The speaker is in my opinion Robert Frost himself, but if it’s not him than it is a person who is reminiscing about their childhood. This poem is set in a birch forest during the winter, because it is saying how the ice storms bent the branches.
So what this poem is about is a man who is looking at the bent birch trees. The trees are bent because of the weight of ice from ice storms. But what he wants to believe is that a little boy has been swinging on the branches so many times that they have become weak. And then he moves on to talk about how sometimes he wants to get away from everything for a while, but he doesn’t want to die. He wants to come back, but just for a while he wants to get away from it all.

READING II:
This poem has a happy undertone to it. You realize early on that the speaker is most likely reminiscing about his childhood and how his only form of entertainment was himself. And he’s just thinking about how he used to play in the forest and swing on the branches.
I believe that the main purpose of this poem is to give the reader a distinct image of a birch forest. Pretty much the entire poem is about painting that picture in your mind. For example the quotes, “I see birches bend to left and right/ Across the lines of straighter darker trees,” and “Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells/ Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust—/ Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away/ You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.”
This poem is an extended comparison, if there is such a thing. The speaker talks about how his life was really carefree. As he reminisces, he realizes that now the birches have an entirely new meaning, and he would use them for a new purpose as well—to escape from the world rather than to help deal with it. There are a few similes in this poem, for example, “You may see their trunks arching in the woods/ Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground/ Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair.” This simile is comparing the perpetually bent branches to girls on their hands and knees with their hair hanging down.
This poem does not rhyme.

READING III:
There are two main themes in “Birches” that truly stick out to me. The first is the theme of the innocence of childhood. The speaker enjoys reminiscing about his younger years because he had no cares and no worries. He could seemingly overcome anything. The second theme that I found was the change between adolescence and adulthood. The speaker’s views and goals were completely different from the time when he was a young boy swinging on the branches to where he is an older man thinking about himself swinging on the branches.


| Posted on 2007-02-26 | by a guest

.: .: birches :. :.

I agree with a previous guest, this poem can be taken sexually, but only if that is what you are looking for. This previous guest stated that he or she had been studying the poem for thier highschool class, and that they believed it was referring to masturbation. Then another guest commented that "whoever thinks this is about masturbation is an idiot." Well, not necessarily. The person who thought the poem was referring to something sexual firmly supported their view, even providing examples. What more could you expect from a hormonal, sex-crazed, highschooler? Obviously when they read "...Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair," a teenaged boy would take it in a different way than, say, a middle aged woman. So to whomever posted the comment about the quote 'idiot' who thought the poem was about masturbation? Half the joy of poetry is that it can mean anything-- as long as it is supported.

| Posted on 2007-02-26 | by a guest

.: birches :.

birches is about images of trees bending and moving sparking is mind into flashbacks of how his childhood used to be. he remebers what it was like as a kid viewing the trees and he compares it to his life in the present and sees it much diferently. Also whoever thinks this is about masturbation is an idiot.

| Posted on 2007-01-29 | by a guest

.: birches :.

I am studying this poem for the IB program in high school, and I must say, this poem has to be about masturbation...::
"I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches"
and

"One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully"





| Posted on 2007-01-21 | by a guest

.: Student's Analysis :.

In Birches, Frost almost seems to reminisce with the childhood of his past through the character of a boy in the country. As he describes these monoliths, birch trees now broken under the heavy loads of ice and reality, he shares his empathy as he prefers to recall a time when they were a solace and a mentor for the boy. Having spent the summers and winters alone, these beacons would stand against the “lines of straighter, darker trees” and offer times better than playing baseball with other kids in town and herding the cattle for his father. The boy’s free time offered him a chance to defeat these trees as a growing boy might have had to do with his life. Each offered different challenges and hurdles to overcome as he climbed and cleared his way to the top of each to tie down his swing; doing his best to reach the highest, farthest branches the same as you would “fill a cup up to the brim”. A wrong step or careless grasp would ground him again and teach him to handle life with caution and care.

Frost dreams of childhood times, when life was much simpler. Coming and going while swinging on birches gave him the opportunity of perspective that is somehow lost as we grow older and forget. Now, as life moves on, responsibilities and hardships are like a “pathless wood” that he pushes through – breaking twigs and cobwebs obscuring his vision with tears of pain – often braved without stopping to climb and regain this perspective. Despite his complaints, he understands the sanctity of life and wouldn’t have it another way. He only suggests instead of pushing through life half blind and in pain, do not forget to renew this perspective. Frost anticipates in his time spent climbing birches, conquering life and its difficulties, he is slowly progressing toward “the heavens” until humanity would not allow him further up. “The tree can bear no more, but dipped its top and set me down again” onto the ground where he would rest. Ultimately, life will be man’s limiter and man could do worse than to exhaust it while testing its bounds.

-placer14

| Posted on 2007-01-16 | by a guest

.: :.

The speaker in Robert Frost’s “Birches” sees trees whose branches have been bent by ice storms. However, the speaker favors a vision of branches that are bent as a result of boys swinging on them, just as he did when he was young. The subject of Frost’s melancholy poem is the “swinging” that takes place on the branches of the birch trees. This poem comments on the speaker’s attempt to transcend everyday life in an effort to move into a world of freedom. In the past, the speaker could rely on swinging on the trees to help him transcend his present state in life. Now, opposite forces pull on the speaker during everyday life as he wishes to metaphorically swing back and forth between, yet overtop of the tensions he faces.
There is no one thing that stands out when the poem’s external structure is examined, but looking a little closer may lead one to see an important subtlety in the way the poem is organized. “Birches” is written in blank verse and the number of iambs varies in each line, making each line a different length. It’s almost as if the poem itself is swinging back and forth between line lengths, just as the boy swings on the birch tree, with no definitive structure. Frost may or may not have intentionally done this, but it is an interesting characteristic of this poem that can be fittingly tied to the poem’s subject.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker sees one thing, but is being pulled in a different direction to visualize what is most favorable to him. The speaker tells the reader that he likes to visualize ice storm-bent trees as trees which have been bent as a result of boys swinging on them. In this sense, the speaker is being pulled from reality into a vision of fantasy, wishing to escape what he knows is real. “But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay/As ice storms do,” says the speaker in line five. It isn’t as if the speaker is in denial as to which force has caused these trees to bend, but this simile illustrates the stronger force of ice in comparison to boys who swing on the branches. It’s as if he is saying that some tensions in life are just stronger than others.
The speaker makes an effort to make the reader feel as if he or she is present in the poem by using onomatopoeia and alliteration to hear and visualize the tree, possibly to make the reader take the first step into understanding his situation. The speaker says in lines nine and ten that “the stir cracks and crazes their enamel … the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells.” The use of onomatopoeia and alliteration help the reader to get a sense of the speaker’s surroundings. “Often you must have seen [trees bent by ice],” assumes the speaker in line five. It also enables the reader to feel as if she were standing right in front of the tree, but the speaker assumes one already has.
One important element is the previously mentioned swinging motion between opposites. There is a contrast between Truth and what the speaker prefers to imagine took place to the birch trees. Truth, in the speaker’s eyes, is figurative and imaginative: Ice storms are described in terms of the "inner dome of heaven," and bent trees as girls drying their hair in the sun (lines 13,19). This kind of truth calls into question whether the speaker believes there is, in fact, a capital-T Truth. He is essentially swinging back and forth between Truth and another belief.
The language of the poem is friendly and funny in sections, but powerful in others. This is just another example of the swinging action present in this poem. The speaker says in a friendly manner, "But I was going to say when Truth broke in / With all her matter of fact about the ice storm," (line 21). On the other hand, the language is powerful; the description of the ice-covered birch trees is quite vivid and moving.
The speaker tells us that these trees don’t have the power to recover once they’ve been bent by ice, and as a result they hang down toward the ground and can no longer provide the escape that they once used to. The speaker would prefer that a boy bend these branches; he wishes that a boy has had a chance to escape from the world by swinging on this tree, just as he used to do. The poem begins to take on a melancholy tone at this point and the speaker wishes that he still had the option of swinging on the birch tree in an effort to escape. The problem is that the escape is only temporary, because the branches will eventually hang on the ground, just as the ice causes them to do.
The entire poem is really moving in the direction of escape of the real world and the forces that pull on the speaker while he is on Earth. The speaker merely wants "to get away from the earth awhile" (line 49). Anyone would like to climb a tree and swing on it in an effort to escape everyday tensions and the speaker knows this. However, in the end, he knows that he or whoever swings on the trees will inevitably be pulled back to the ground. This is especially true when someone is "weary of considerations, / And life is too much like a pathless wood" (lines 43-44). The speaker used to find his way through a pathless wood by climbing a tree and swinging on its branches. Interestingly enough, climbing and swinging on the tree take on different meanings for the boy and the man. For the boy, the climbing of the tree is purely fun and play. For the man however, it serves as a form of escape. In either case, climbing birches seems synonymous with imagination, escape and possibly even the contemplation of death, all forces that pull on the speaker. The speaker does not leave it at that though. He does not want his wish half- fulfilled. If climbing trees is a move in the direction of freedom, then total transcendence means never coming back down from the tree.
It seems odd, but the speaker doesn’t seem to be in favor of the use of imagination, and he reiterates his ties to the earth. He says, "Earth's the right place for love," though his "face burns" and "one eye is weeping" (line 53,45,46). He must escape to keep his sanity, but he must go back to the ground and keep going because he really doesn’t have a choice if he wants to live.
It is interesting to note the transformation that takes place after line 46, as there is a shift from commentary on everyday stresses to a very religion-laced commentary. Until line 47, the speaker wishes he could escape by doing an act as simple as climbing a tree and swinging on its branches. The last twelve lines, however, are very religion oriented with an emphasis on what seems to be reincarnation. The speaker longs to be young again, but he also seems to just want some more time on Earth. Despite this, the speaker isn’t afraid to die. Part of him seems to want to die in hopes of being reincarnated with the ability to come back to Earth and swing on the birch trees like he once did. The speaker wants to propel himself "toward heaven" to the limits of earthly possibility, but he’ll be lost if he tries too hard to transcend his present state (line 56). The upward motion needs something to complement it and the complement is a swing in the other direction to help the speaker to remain balanced. That is why the birch tree is perfect for the speaker’s attempted transcendence. The tree is rooted in the ground and the person who climbs it is not totally disconnected from the earth. The final leap from the tree takes courage, skill, and experience. As a result, a person’s path up and down the birch tree is "good both going and coming back" (line 58). The "Truth" of the ice storm does not interfere for long; the poet looks at bent trees and imagines a plan for how to live his life.
In this poem, the speaker feels the need to attempt to transcend everyday life in an effort to move into a world of freedom which contains no worries. The pain of reality may be too much for him. In the past, the speaker could rely on swinging on the trees to help him transcend his present state in life. Now, opposite forces pull on the speaker during everyday life, but he can’t just swing on the birch trees like he used to. He wishes he could be a boy again, but as much as he longs to go away for a while, he knows that he has it alright on Earth.


| Posted on 2005-11-08 | by Approved Guest

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Birches is about daydreaming and wishing. Frost knows exactly why the trees are bent left and right, he explains it in the poem (the ice storms). But "what I was going to say when the truth broke in" shows that he doesn't want to believe that. He wants to believe that they are bent because there was a boy swinging from them...Maybe himself as a boy? Or maybe he just wants to visualize something or someone happy. He wants to be a "swinger of birches" again like he used to be because life is too much for him. He can deal with the pain ("one eye weeping from a twig's having lashed across it open") of play, but the pain of reality may in fact be too much for him. He wants to be a boy again. But as much as he wishes he could go away for a while, he knows that he has it alright on Earth. Because "Earth is the right place for love". Swinging on birches "would be good both going and coming back" because you are leaving reality, but coming back to it is welcomed sometimes. So instead he will continue to dream, because you can do worse than be a swinger of birches.

| Posted on 2005-04-14 | by Approved Guest