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Description:

Shmoop the road less traveled by.

Language:
English Language

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]

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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