In all religious doctrines & spiritual texts – one question is common. How will the world come to an end? Rather than the origination of this world, people are more fascinated to know the reason of its end.
Death has some flavour. Robert Frost, a notable poet of America, through his poems revealed the truth. In western countries, Snow is the major symbol of death. Have you ever watched the movie series ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’?
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is the first movie of the series. We can see a fantasy world of Narnia in an eternal winter. When good wins over evil Snow starts melting & it symbolizes life.
In Indian spiritual doctrines, Shiva is the lord of death who resides at Mount Kailash, a place arduous to reach & full of Snow. This is not a coincidence that we put Shiva at Kailash. The only difference is that witch of Narnia symbolizes evil with death and Shiva represents death with wisdom and spiritual powerhouse.
DUST OF SNOW
When a person with a rued mindset was standing under a tree; suddenly a crow shook the hemlock tree and a dust of snow, fall upon him. It was winter and there was snow on the tree. Accidentally, with some unknown movement of the crow – Snow-fall upon the man & this trivial incident saved his day.
In Dust of Snow, Robert Frost through his 8 lines raised many questions also.
- Why background weather is selected as winter.
- What is the significance of falling of Snow on a person?
- Why the bird – crow is selected?
As a reader, we didn’t trace the reason for the rued mindset of the person. Meanwhile, the reason for our distress does not matter always; distress is sufficient to ruin a life. Distress is our death in many aspects.
Snow was accidentally fall upon the person. Anything which symbolizes death cannot be a saviour of anyone’s rued mindset. But in the poem, the speaker admitted that this trivial event had changed his mood and also it saved the day he had rued.
Has given my heart
a change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
It is not snow; it is his intellect and presence of mind that saved his day. There is a law of attraction in this universe. A person with pain can only invite pain and vice versa. We can admit that falling of a dust of snow is a trigger for his thinking and intellectual capabilities for positive change.
In addition, crow has a potent position as a symbol in English literature. It is if not directly linked with death – a symbol of mystery, tragedy and destiny. A leaf, a stem or even excreta of the crow can be used to fall upon the person. But No – Snow falls. A messenger of tragedy and mystery triggered a mysterious event – the change of mood.
The world will come to end if distress persists forever. There are people all around the world with pain, agony, depression, apathy, negativity and much more. It needs to be changed. We also notice a communication between a person and nature in the poem. Nature does conversation; how much we communicate or understand is a big question mark?
FIRE AND ICE
Robert Frost in his poem ‘Fire and Ice’ also signifies that the world will certainly come to an end. In this poem also, he took the symbol of Ice. This is a nine-line long poem with a proper rhyming scheme, meanwhile, very casual in tone but a lot of content to ponder upon.
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He connected our desires with fire and hatred with ice. If we remember Adolf Hitler – His uncontrolled desire to rule put the whole world under the trauma of war in which millions of people lost their life. In the words of Aristotle, “Bring your desire down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.”
Desire always remains un-quenched; it is logical reasoning and thinking which keep it checked. Frost probably wrote this poem in 1920 and just 20 years after – the world saw the truth of Robert Frost words.
Desire is connected with fire because fire can also be uncontrolled if not checked by various means. Also, Ice is rigid and burn things but in a different manner. Hate always originated out of our fear, jealously, anger or a sense of insecurity.
When hate becomes prominent; it appears violently outside. Years ago, the renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud coined a term called ‘Projection’ which describes our tendency to reject what we don’t like about ourselves. Hence hatred needs to be learned with compassion and understanding.
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Hate can disrupt a relationship. Actually with hate, no relation can survive. Hate grows within very slowly but when it becomes mature, it is an uncontrollable emotion. We can understand this in on-going terrorist attacks across the globe.
According to certain fundamental religious philosophy or doctrine – every faith and religious theologies other than theirs are subjected to be annihilated. Continuous preaching against such faith can develop hate among those who practice fundamentalist ideology. Such activities are creating havoc in the form of terrorism.
Sometimes words are not words – they are the valuable messages to humanity. Robert Frost’s poetry is highly influenced by Dante and Aristotle but Frost did wonderful usage of traditional and contemporary symbolism, sufficient enough to give us an answer. Desire, Depression and Hatred will end this world.
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