HSC English (Standard) - Holiday Homework



DiscoveryThe representation of Discovery in Robert Frost’s pastoral poem, “The Tuft of Flowers”. As is notable with Frost’s poetry, the simplicity of his language is deceptive, the restrained, chaste use of language in no way belying the complexity, resonance and profundity of the emotional and intellectual discoveries represented within it. This poem does reinforce Frost’s belief that, “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom”. Discovery is a process of humanity and is complex within this poem; this seemingly simple narrative poem transforms to an examination of meaning, life, beauty in nature and humanity. Man is isolated in this poem, as he is in many of Frost’s works, and fragile, brief moments communing with nature afford him an enrichment of the soul, provide purpose and offer a revelation of sorts. The butterfly and the tuft of flowers are two such transient but integral moments. There are elements of the Romantic in this poem – it is simultaneously an examination of man within the world but also demonstrates a reverence to what nature can offer the human world should that discovery be embraced. The persona is enriched through the imaginative and literal experiences he undergoes as he contemplates the mowed landscape, wonders who the absent farmer is and also in the serendipitous actions of the butterfly which alters his perception of the landscape. This is one of Frost’s pastoral poems – set in the rural landscape of his immediate context but examining the wider world through this pastoral prism. The persona and the stranger unite through their commonality and this pastoral community, and despite the absence of one character, as they are joined through nature but also through a common work ethic which Frost examines in many of his rural poems. Some aspects of discovery revealed through the poem include the process of the persona attempting to discover who the mysterious labourer is who mowed the grass before sunrise. Discovery occurs in this process – not just about the unseen farmer but about life, existence, nature and perception. The butterfly becomes the catalyst for the discovery as it leads the person to look afield and explore further, thus discovering the flowers remaining. Nature and man, through discovery, become kindred spirits in this poem as the persona finds the last remaining flowers in the field – the tuft symbolic of man’s sense of unity in the face of modernity’s imposed sense of isolation - as the unseen character leaves this unspoiled tuft and the persona discovers it. The tuft of flowers provides the ultimate revelation – illustrating the earlier paradox that man is united even when alone in a common humanity. It is therefore discovered that: humanity has an innate desire to find meaning in existence, in all things. revelation is afforded those who search for meaning in the everydaythe value and honesty in hard work should be reveredlife and nature are transient and mutable, offering brief moments of clarity and beautyjoy and beauty are derived from nature and from these brief moments in timeman’s search for meaning and understanding is timeless and universal and a core component of the human conditionman searches for companionship in life and this fundamental search evokes further curiosities and wonderthat the truth about life can be found in small, serendipitious moments man’s journey in life is ultimately a solo one – whether individuals are together or alone. It is the existential isolation that lies at the heart of the human condition and which paradoxically therefore unites us.Some analysis of the poem, “The Tuft of Flowers”This narrative poem describes a process of enlightenment as dawn reveals to the isolated persona a changed rural landscape, which has been mowed by another. This revelation of sorts promotes contemplation by the persona and leads to a kind of reverie as he contemplates who might be responsible for this action. As the poet regards the altered field, he turns the grass to dry it, in the process of making hay. He views this “levelled scene” with wariness and perhaps with some negativity, in juxtaposition to his enlightened perspective of this event later in the poem. The rhyming couplets in describing his quest to find the absent farmer of “I looked for him behind an isle of trees; I listened for his whetstone on the breeze”, when coupled with the accumulative quality garnered by the verbs, “looked” and “listened” evokes his intense curiosity and desire to know the circumstances surrounding this happenchance. Further, the repetition of the exclusive personal pronoun of “I” in this lines evocatively provides an insight into the nature of this discovery and its impact upon this individual – the circumstance he happens upon evokes wonder and leads to further questions he must address to satiate his natural curiosity over this unexpected discovery and he is earnest and engaged by the quest. Yearning is further enhanced in these lines through Frost’s utilisation of assonance within “trees”, “whetstone” and “breeze” to further heighten the sense of desire he feels to discover the labourer for himself. He must find the “truth” of this event. Whilst he ultimately does not uncover this “truth”, he is, in fact, enlightened by other truths. The discoverer in this poem, in this way, becomes representative of the Everyman, of all men, in pursuit of life’s meaning and purpose in the face of the human condition.The absent character had left the scene post mowing, the imagery creating images of a barren field, “the grass all mown”, and it is the persona’s perception on this situation, and on life itself, is that he “… I must be, as he had been, alone”. When considered alongside the earlier negative connotations of the landscape being described as “levelled”, a degree of pessimism is afforded the persona with regards to this. With the absence of the person responsible, there seems to be negative consequences both on the landscape itself and on the psyche of the individual. Pre-discovery, there is a palpable sense of isolation of this individual as they further lament that, ultimately, all men are alone; “ ‘ As all must be’, I said within my heart, Whether they work together or apart.” The aphoristic nature of this internal monologue illustrates the persona’s mindset but also potently comments on the human condition, in that he feels isolated without companionship and alone in this process. The persona is certainly, at this point in the poem, diminished by the experience of being isolated from the actions of the absent, other man, evident within the negative tonal quality of this couplet and the high modality of the notion, “As all must be”. As the persona finishes this sentiment, a “ ‘wildered butterfly” enters the landscape, with “noiseless wing”, and provides a momentary distraction from his isolated state. The butterfly, wandering and searching becomes akin the persona as he hypothesises that it is, ”Seeking with memories grown dim o’night/Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight”; looking, presumably, for the flowers which have been eradicated by the actions of the mower. The beauty and the wonder of the natural world reinvigorates the persona whilst regarding the butterfly; it a symbolic representation of a wandering spirit, perhaps also in search of some “truth” of its own. The butterfly and the persona become analogous; one represents the other and it is this serendipitous discovery which affords the persona a momentary altered perception of this situation, and therefore of life itself. The butterfly, its wing now “tremulous”, leads the persona to the “tall tuft of flowers” which lay untouched by the mower and sit away from the immediate eyesight of him; the alliterative quality of the “t” giving the moment some resonance and also providing undeniably positive imagery. In a commune with nature, the persona is enlightened, enlivened and enriched, much like the restorative power of nature lauded by the Romantic composers, but in this instance, allowing a greater insight into both nature and humanity, through this small, brief act. The persona is allowed an opportunity for discovery through the interjection of this butterfly; of the natural world and in a world occupied by others. The flowers lay beside a “brook”, and are described as a “leaping tongue of bloom”; the religious allusion evident here of the power of the moment to restore the human spirit and give meaning to existence. The “reedy brook” had been “bared” but, in comparison, the flower tuft had been “spared”, juxtaposing the beauty of this tuft with the cleared landscape surrounding it. The tuft then takes on significance greater than just the landscape. It becomes a transformative experience, and wider universal truths are revealed as result, that the “tuft” becomes representative of connections made with others, through experiences or despite them and it is precisely such transient experiences of Romantic sublimity that offer some solace in the face of modern man’s seemingly inescapable sense of separation and isolation. The mower, in a sense, becomes personified by the poet as he hypothesises that the flowers were saved from destruction because of a love “the mower in the dew “ felt for them, not necessarily because of their impact upon him or any other individuals. Happiness, contentedness and fulfilment are evoked through the evocative imagery of the “sheer morning gladness” which is filled “at the brim”. The butterfly and the discoverer now become connected through this experience also, a personified, “message from the dawn”, the fundamental nature of life revealed through the moment of enlightenment provided by the dawn and by the mower’s actions (and, by association, the person who did the mowing). The mower therefore connects the two men through labour and through nature; allowing Frost to both explore his thematic concerns which typically underpin his pastoral poems but also to allow the persona, and us, the opportunity for self-discovery of the contradictions which underpin the human experience in a modern world. The changed perspective that the “dawn” gifts the persona brings his subsequent realisation of the beauty and shared humanity which underpins this moment, however transient. This epiphany allows him to discover the sounds of the “wakening birds” and to hear the “long scythe whispering to the ground”; the symbols of labour and nature combining to link humanity, labour and nature in an understanding which breeds self-knowledge and wider understanding through a personified scythe which now has positive connotations, rather than the “keen blade” which “levelled” the landscape early in the poem. In an understanding of the vitalness of connection to others, the persona, “…feels a spirit kindred to my own” and realises that, from “henceforth I worked no more alone”; the figurative connectedness he was alienated from in his earlier ruminations now a feature of his psyche; the persona subsequently enriched as a result. The metaphorical speech between the mower and the persona being referenced as “brotherly” further develops a sense of kinship, reinforced further through the subtle changes evident in the monologue of earlier, “Men work together…Whether they work together or apart”. This is the persona’s ultimate intellectual and emotional discovery –the realisation that the modernist propensity to lament humanity’s intrinsic isolation can, to some extent, be countered by serendipitous moments of connectedness and affinity with the natural world. ................
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