Strength In Imagination Essay On Robert Frost

’s Poem ‘Birches’ Essay, Research Paper

Strength in Imagination

In Robert Frost’s “Birches,” a whimsical image that turns fact into fancy illustrates the poet’s power to blend observation and imagination. The poem begins with the capricious image of birch trees bending left and right. The speaker “would like to think some boy’s been swinging them.” (3) The speaker breaks into this daydream with a factual illustration, commenting “Often you must have seen” (5) that ice storms bend the birch branches down to stay. This being an observable occurrence, he gives a splendid description of the literal effects of ice storms on the limbs of birch trees. However, the speaker intones, he would much prefer that a swinging boy bend the branches down, because “swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay.” (4) Once again the speaker gives a vivid description, this time of the fictitious boy and his game. This characterization is entirely in his imagination, yet the story of the imaginary boy is rooted in the reality of bending trees and ruthless ice storms. The comparison holds up to close scrutiny. The poet has generated the fantasy of the swinging boy out of contrast with the fact of the storm. This transmutation of reality to fantasy clearly shows the poet’s strength in combining observation and imagination. Using this strength, the poet has created an environment that is truth; both the ice storm and the boy are believed in terms of the poet’s world.