A Line-Storm Song

1. A Line-Storm Song By: Robert Frost

2. This first book of Frost’s poems is concerned with human tragedies and fears, his reaction to the complexities of life, and his ultimate acceptance of his burdens.

3. General Background information • 1874-Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26th in San Francisco. • 1889- Finishes school year at head of his class. • 1895-Marries wife Elinor White in Lawrence on December 19th • 1912-Him and his family moved to England, he spends time writing A Boy’s Will • 1912-Submit’s A Boy’s Will in October to London firm of David Nutt and Company, and accepts for publication. • 1913- A Boy’s Will was then published

4. A Line-Storm Song The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift, The road is forlorn all day, Where a myriad snowy quartz stones lift, And the hoof-prints vanish away. The roadside flowers, too wet for the bee, Expend their bloom in vain. Come over the hills and far with me, And be my love in the rain. The birds have less to say for themselves In the wood-world's torn despair Than now these numberless years the elves, Although they are no less there: All song of the woods is crushed like some Wild, easily shattered rose. Come, be my love in the wet woods; come, Where the boughs rain when it blows. There is the gale to urge behind And bruit our singing down, And the shallow waters aflutter with wind From which to gather your gown. What matter if we go clear to the west, And come not through dry-shod? For wilding brooch shall wet your breast The rain-fresh goldenrod. Oh, never this whelming east wind swells But it seems like the sea's return To the ancient lands where it left the shells Before the age of the fern; And it seems like the time when after doubt Our love came back amain. Oh, come forth into the storm and rout And be my love in the rain.

5. Title (Prediction & Revision) • Prediction- The speaker is listening to music while a bad storm is happening. • This song can determine the mood of the speaker either from a good mood to a bad mood. • Revisit- When listening to a song that soothes your pleasure everything seems to make sense even when everything is going wrong. This can relate to the storm part of the title because the song is calming your emotions that are like a storm, wild and everywhere. The speakers love connects to a song because their love makes perfect sense even after all the barriers they have to go through.

6. Paraphrase There is a Line Storm happening and it is raining, the season is winter. The speaker is alone in the woods hoping that his love will join him. Later on she joins him. He notices all the flaws in their relationship. But he sees that their love will overcome any hardship, they will always go back to each other through anything.

7. Attitude: Shift: The first stanza the speaker has a worried mood because he is not sure if his love will join him but he is hoping that she will. In stanza’s 2-4 the speaker gets a more hopeful feeling because he starts to see how beautiful their love is and even if there is a storm she will end up joining him because their love will surpass the barriers. • Hopeful • Anxious • Overwhelmed • Scared • Determined • Passionate

8. Theme: • The overall theme in ‘A Line-Storm song’ is overcoming hardships, in this case in a relationship of two lovers. How the speaker explains how the storm has gotten bad and how everything has been falling apart. These bad things happening are a representation of the hardships in their relationship. The speaker at the end invites his lover to join him and basically explains how their love is much more powerful and can overcome anything that tries to come in between them because that is true love.

9. Connatation • Metaphor: line 21-22 the author compares the wet feeling to bad experiences and difficulties • Personification: line 9 the birds are given the human characteristics of talking less and less • Symbolism: line 14 the rose is being symbolized as the love they have because roses do not appear in the winter but just like their love it overcomes the hardships • Imagery: the first stanza this gives us a vivid picture of how the woods are be wrecked by the effects of a line-storm and gives us the picture of how the relationship has its flaws.

10. Cristisim #1 • The bird is a metaphor for love • Robert Frost fantasizes poetically and sexually about passion • The birds are very quiet at this point in the poem, they're not singing due to the fact that their love was being interrupted by a storm that can be seen as barriers. • The wind is also a barrier that tried to interrupt the birds from singing but was not successful, meaning that the birds just had sing louder for their love. • The speakers fantasy of passion includes “rout” and apocalypse with the return with a prehistoric sea that will retake dry land. Meaning that their love will be rebuilt

11. Criticism #2 • To show passion as lines of storms • Their love was torn apart but at the end it overcame it like the sea reflooded the dry land. • Through all the things that have happened to the birds it did not merely silence the lyric birds because their strong was so strong.

12. Our Interpretation • Overall if the love that the speaker had with his partner was real it should surpass any barrier or obstacle that stood in their way. We took the poem as the birds being a representation of the love of the two. The line-storm represented all the barriers and interruptions of their love. Although their love went through so many obstacles that could have prevented their love to grow the birds sung louder to surpass the noise of the wind. Meaning they were going to try anything to not let any barriers break their love. Since the setting took place in the winter time it is uncommon to see flowers blossom, the rose symbolizes their love that overcame the harsh season and still found a way to blossom like their love did.

13. Works Cited • Kearns, Katherine. Robert Frost and a Poetics of Appetite. Cambridge [etc.: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print.