Desert Places

Desert Places by Robert Frost
I decided to go back to this one because I loved this one and meant to do a blog on it earlier.

"Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last."

I interpreted this section as the speaker feels lonely (I saw more of this later too) and felt as though it came on fast. I saw "night falling fast" as the darkness that the speaker feels in his life. I also interpreted the las two lines in this section as meaning that everyone, despite how strong their exterior or front is, has issues that they deal with.

"The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares."

This section I felt as though the speaker was saying that he felt like he didn't have his own space or his own home. The loneliness spoken about above also became more obvious to me in this stanza.

"And lonely as it is, that loneliness
will be more lonely ere it will be less--
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With not expression, nothing to express."

I felt as though Frost was trying to say that a blanket of snow is 'expressionless' (if you will). A smooth, white, pristine blanket of snow is like a person's 'poker face'. You cannot necessarily know when something is wrong with them. This, to me, related back to the last two lines in the first stanza.

"They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places."

This section was hard for me to interpret. I took it as, the speaker was so fearful of his own loneliness and issues that he couldn't be scared by the issues of others.

America

This poem by Claude McKay was one that I found to be quite interesting.

This poem, I believe, is mainly about the experiences of the speaker, whom I interpreted to be Mr. McKay, in America.

"Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!"

I interpreted this as his way of saying that while there are hardships in his life that stem from America [America being the "she" in the poem], he still likes being there. I know that there were many issues that revolved around race; I interpreted those issues to be some of his 'tests' of his youth.

"Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood."

Going back to the racial issues, I considered that those issues were what he was referring to in this section. "Her vigor", I figured was the opinions that many people had towards those of different races, but somehow he gains strength from those very opinoins.

"Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer."

I saw this as the speaker saying that while he is aggrivated and feels somewhat bitter, he will not be fearful or hateful.

"Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand."
(America, Claude McKay)

He knows that there are many more trying days ahead in dealing with these issues and opinions, but he is hopeful that one day this country can move past them and only time would tell.


I'm not quite sure if anyone else interpreted the poem this way, but this is just what I got out of it.