What is the analysis of Not To Keep by Robert frost?

Answer 1

Official letters to wives, parents or relatives of soldiers fighting at the front mostly contain bad news. The woman in this poem has received such a letter. Probably she has often been afraid that a letter like this would arrive one day.

Her first reaction after opening it is one of relief. The dots in line 2 suggest that she quickly runs through the letter until she realizes that her husband or son is not dead.

Her only thought at first is that he is coming back. But soon she begins to doubt and worry. Are they telling her the truth, the whole truth? How bad is he? he may be on the point of death. Before she has time to find out, he is there. he has been sent home.

Again she shows the same reactions. He is alive! She realizes that it is a silly thought, for he would not be brought home if he were dead. But how badly is he wounded? She does not see anything, so she has to ask.

He does not answer at once. Probably he is carried or helped into the house in the meantime. The short sentences show how quickly the thoughts cross the woman's mind. She remembers that when he went away to the war she felt that 'she had given all'. he meant everything to her, and she might never see him again. In all the time that she has been alone, she has come to think of the two of them separately. Perhaps the loneliness had made her selfish: he, too, has given all. She realizes this in line 10, when se corrects herself: instead of 'she' she should use 'they' again.

When se repeats her question, she hears that he will soon be well enough to go to the front again. Instead of joy about the fact that he will not be crippled for life, they already feel the pain of having to say goodbye again, possibly for ever. She is no longer selfish now, when she thinks of what he will have to go through again.

The first word of his answer to her is 'enough'. It expresses how dreadful the experience must have been to him: the shock at the moment when the bullet hit him, the uncertainty about how bad it was when he lay wounded, waiting to be taken to the hospital. All this, or worse, he may have to experience again. He does not want the think about it, let alone talk about it, and she understands. We can see in this poem that Robert Frost does not use the poetic elements that often serve to make poetry more beautiful or melodious. There is no rhyme in the poem. The many run-on lines, the halting rhythm and the simple words create the impression of natural everyday speech, which the poet uses with great economy.

Answer 2

"Not to Keep" by Robert Frost describes the transience of life and the inevitability of change. The poem uses a flowing stream as a metaphor to convey the idea that everything is constantly moving and nothing can be held onto permanently. Frost shows that we must appreciate and accept the fleeting nature of life.