Desert Places

I found this poem by Robert Frost to be slightly depressing but very beautiful at the same time.

Personally, I don't like winter. It's too gloomy, too cold, and too monochromatic. It is most definitely my least favorite season. Winter is a pathetic excuse for a season.

Okay, I'm not that bitter...it's just winter is too gloomy for my taste. I love the sunshine. I love warmth. I am okay with admitting that I am completely biased towards summer.

Robert Frost begins his poem with imagery that we, as Coloradoens, can relate to -- falling snow. As he explains the weather outside, he links human emotion to it, which I found to be incredibley touching. "I am too absent-spirited to count; The lonliness included me unawares."

There is no doubt that winter is the lonliest season, and I think that is why I dislike it as much as I do. And I think Robert Frost compares this feeling to the cold outside because a blanket of snow outside relates to the lonliness of people -- it captivates the bleak and vulnerable side of humans, that fighting against the cold of the snow, must wear a jacket. Or fighting against the cold of lonliness, you need someone there for you.
As for the title, at first I took it very literally then I read the poem and I realized it was talking about the complete opposite. As I was imagining a hot, sandy desert, I was struck with bitter cold, and icesicles. Needless to say, I was not pleased. But I think that Robert Frost used "Desert Places" as his title so that you would imagine a scorching hot desert, only to make your mind switch settings and actually feel a cold, winter day. And I think he also meant it not as a desert place (with sand and no water) but rather, a deserted place ... with no one there. Deserted is how he feels inside and how I feel inside when I read this poem.

All of this adds to the overall tone of the poem -- which I interpreted as very feeble and melancholy. He uses four stanzas for the structure of the poem, which feels relatively average. However, I totally thought of four stanzas -- four seasons, and with every stanza, he's lonliness and sadness seems to heighten. :( I didn't realize the rhyming scheme until about the fourth time I read it; he does it very sneakily.

A

A

B

A

It's almost like you forget that the last "A" rhymes with the previous two "A's" I'm not sure why Robert Frost did that, but it's pretty cool when you figure it out. :)