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Robert Frost, a la Shmoop: Nature Boy. The next time you're in the grocery store. [girl rides shopping cart]

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. . . . .try counting all the products that have the words "organic" or "natural" on them. [girl holds up a hot dog and sodas]

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. . .try counting all the products that have the words "organic" or "natural" on them. [girl holds up a hot dog and sodas]

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Oh, and you might want to wear comfortable shoes. . .

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. . .since you're probably going to be there for awhile [woman in supermarket wearing fancy clothes]

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Yep. We're definitely on a back-to-nature phase. . .

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. . .something our friend, Robert Frost, would have appreciated.

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One of America's greatest poets. . .

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. . . Frost wrote a lot of poems about nature and rural life. . .[Frost pops out of a poppy field]

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. . .which leads us to our question. Why did he so often use nature as a theme?

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Well, he did own a farm for ten years. . .

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. . .so maybe living out in the country inspired him. . .

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. . . to write about settings that were comfortable and familiar

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Even after he sold the farm and moved to London. . . [map or world, boad crossing Atlantic]

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. . .he may have looked at life in the country. . .

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. . .as simpler and more "real" than urban life.

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Or maybe he kept going back to nature. . .[Frost slides down snow on mountain]

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. . .because of all the beautiful imagery it provided.

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Poets love that stuff, right? Maybe Frost just liked painting pretty pictures

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with words. . .

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. . .and snow was just snow. . .

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. . . and swaying birches were just swaying birches. [Frost with umbrella getting blown across screen]

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Possibly. But what if he used nature as a metaphor for life?

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Those woods don't sound quite as inviting now, do they?

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You've got to admit, it's not too much of a

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stretch. . .

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. . .to think Frost might have used the harshness of nature. . .[guy bites into wormey apple]

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. . .to point out how tough life could be. And he sure wouldn't have been the first writer.

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. . .to use a metaphor. So, why did Frost write so often about nature? . .

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. . .to use a metaphor. So, why did Frost write so often about nature?

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Did he just feel more comfortable writing about rural settings. . .[Frost in a department store elevator]

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. . .or did he think nature was a more worthy subject than urban life?

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Was it all about creating visual imagery with words. . .

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. . .or was nature a good stand-in for human struggles? [domestic pine trees with pine cone babies]

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Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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