Literary Devices
This literary device is used in Fire and Ice when Frost gives human qualities to destruction.
What is personification?
In Acquainted with the Night, “luminary” most nearly means this.
What is a source of light / celestial body?
Which poem includes a boy cutting wood with a buzz saw?
What is Out, Out—?
This is the central theme of Nothing Gold Can Stay.
What is the temporary nature of beauty/youth?
“Nature’s first green is gold…”
Identify the poem.
What is Nothing Gold Can Stay?
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep” is an example of this sound device using repeated consonant sounds.
What is alliteration?
In A Time to Talk, “mellow ground” most nearly means this.
What is soft, rich, or fertile soil?
Which poem features a speaker walking through a city at night in isolation?
What is Acquainted with the Night?
This theme is central to A Time to Talk.
What is the importance of human connection?
“I have outwalked the furthest city light.”
Identify the poem.
What is Acquainted with the Night?
In Nothing Gold Can Stay, “Nature’s first green is gold” is an example of this because “gold” represents something more than its literal meaning.
What is symbolism?
In Out, Out—, “snarl” means this.
What is to growl, twist, or make a harsh sound?
Which poem focuses on choosing between two paths in a yellow wood?
What is The Road Not Taken?
This theme is most closely connected to Acquainted with the Night.
What is isolation / loneliness?
“And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”
Identify the poem.
What is Out, Out?
In Out, Out—, the buzz saw represents this literary device because it hints at coming tragedy.
What is foreshadowing?
In The Road Not Taken, “undergrowth” refers to this.
What is thick plants/shrubs beneath trees?
Which poem reminds readers to pause work to talk with a friend?
What is A Time to Talk?
In The Road Not Taken, Frost challenges this common idea about life choices.
What is that one choice is always clearly better or more unique than another?
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”
Identify the poem.
What is The Road Not Taken?
In The Road Not Taken, the two roads mainly function as this extended literary device.
What is a metaphor for life choices?
In Nothing Gold Can Stay, “subside” most nearly means this.
What is to sink, fade, or become less intense?
Which poem asks philosophical questions about whether the world will end through desire or hatred?
What is Fire and Ice?
The deeper message of Out, Out is about this harsh truth of life.
What is life’s fragility and/or the indifference of the world to tragedy?
Across many of Frost’s poems, he often explores the tension between: individual human experience and this larger unavoidable reality.
What is nature / time / mortality?