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Robert Frost 2800 Views
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Description:
Shmoop the road less traveled by.
Transcript
- 00:04
Robert Frost, a la Shmoop: Nature Boy. The next time you're in the grocery store. [girl rides shopping cart]
- 00:11
. . . . .try counting all the products that have the words "organic" or "natural" on them. [girl holds up a hot dog and sodas]
- 00:11
. . .try counting all the products that have the words "organic" or "natural" on them. [girl holds up a hot dog and sodas]
- 00:16
Oh, and you might want to wear comfortable shoes. . .
- 00:19
. . .since you're probably going to be there for awhile [woman in supermarket wearing fancy clothes]
Full Transcript
- 00:23
Yep. We're definitely on a back-to-nature phase. . .
- 00:26
. . .something our friend, Robert Frost, would have appreciated.
- 00:32
One of America's greatest poets. . .
- 00:34
. . . Frost wrote a lot of poems about nature and rural life. . .[Frost pops out of a poppy field]
- 00:37
. . .which leads us to our question. Why did he so often use nature as a theme?
- 00:42
Well, he did own a farm for ten years. . .
- 00:45
. . .so maybe living out in the country inspired him. . .
- 00:47
. . . to write about settings that were comfortable and familiar
- 00:51
Even after he sold the farm and moved to London. . . [map or world, boad crossing Atlantic]
- 00:54
. . .he may have looked at life in the country. . .
- 00:56
. . .as simpler and more "real" than urban life.
- 01:00
Or maybe he kept going back to nature. . .[Frost slides down snow on mountain]
- 01:02
. . .because of all the beautiful imagery it provided.
- 01:05
Poets love that stuff, right? Maybe Frost just liked painting pretty pictures
- 01:11
with words. . .
- 01:11
. . .and snow was just snow. . .
- 01:14
. . . and swaying birches were just swaying birches. [Frost with umbrella getting blown across screen]
- 01:18
Possibly. But what if he used nature as a metaphor for life?
- 01:24
Those woods don't sound quite as inviting now, do they?
- 01:28
You've got to admit, it's not too much of a
- 01:33
stretch. . .
- 01:33
. . .to think Frost might have used the harshness of nature. . .[guy bites into wormey apple]
- 01:37
. . .to point out how tough life could be. And he sure wouldn't have been the first writer.
- 01:42
. . .to use a metaphor. So, why did Frost write so often about nature? . .
- 01:43
. . .to use a metaphor. So, why did Frost write so often about nature?
- 01:48
Did he just feel more comfortable writing about rural settings. . .[Frost in a department store elevator]
- 01:53
. . .or did he think nature was a more worthy subject than urban life?
- 01:59
Was it all about creating visual imagery with words. . .
- 02:01
. . .or was nature a good stand-in for human struggles? [domestic pine trees with pine cone babies]
- 02:10
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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