Robert Lee Frost, one of America's leading Twentieth century poets and a four time Pulitzer Prize winner, was born in San

Francisco in March of 1874. Although born on the West Coast, he is usually associated with New England in his poetry. He is a

Brilliant writer whose works traditional and universal. His life's ambition was to write "a few poems that will be hard to get rid of,"

and it is quite obvious that he was successful in achieving that goal.

Three of Frost's obsessive themes, those of isolation, of extinction and of final limitations of man are explored widely and explicitly in his poems. The isolation of the individual is apparent in the poem; "Mending Wall" in which Frost's illustrates man's necessity for barriers to isolate themselves from their fellow men whereas in "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" the persona himself wishes to be isolated. In "After Apple-Picking" Frosts questions the possibility of extinction of the soul when one's mortal body becomes extinct. While in "Fire and Ice" Frosts looks at the ways in which humans can eliminate themselves because of the extremities of their uncontrollable emotions. The final limitations of man is presented

and assessed in the poem "The road not taken".

Frost's three obsessive themes, that are isolation, extinction and final limitations of man, are universal as they transcend every aspect of society. Frost uses plain, unelaborated words and images to convey his themes. He takes an ordinary experience and transforms it into a meditative moment, a philosophical encounter. As a skillful poet as Frost is, he is able to produce a profound response or feeling from the reader to three of his obsessive themes being isolation, extinction and final limitations. The extinction, limitations and isolation of the individual in either a social or natural environment relates to how difficult it is for the self to understand existence. The simplicity in Frost's poems opens the door for many different interpretations. Frost through the selection of key words which effectively embodie the central meaning of the poem and also prompts the reader to look beyond the surface meaning of the language. This leads to the reader discovering deeper truth and attaining greater understanding of three of his obsessive themes.

"Mending Wall" questions the necessity for human isolation. Walls whether physical or psychological represent isolation and imprisonment. In "Mending Wall" we find the persona interrogating his neighbour as to whether a wall is necessary between them "If I could put a notion in his head". Frost in this poem uses a simple rural activity, that is the mending of a wall, to conjure a much more universal theme that is isolation. The persona ponders at the fact why man can not live without walls, boundaries, limits and particularly self-limitations. "There where it is/ We do not need a wall". Isolation of the individual links to our desire for barriers and boundaries as a form of separation from other people. We find in "Mending Wall" the desire of a rural farmer to mend a wall every spring between him and the persona "And set the wall between us as we go". The persona in this poem interrogates his neighbour as to the necessity of the wall "What I was walling in or walling out" thus questioning his desire for isolation. Primitive as the neighbour is, the only answe

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Approximate Word count = 1461
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)