User:Dominic.hartigan/A Question (poem)

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Poem[edit]

A Question,

A voice said, Look me in the stars

And tell me truly, men of earth,

If all the soul-and-body scars

Were not too much to pay for birth.

Overview[edit]

" A Question" is a poem published by Robert Frost in the volume of poetry called A Witness Tree. The poem is written using a simple rhyme scheme structure. Specifically Frost uses an ABAB rhyme scheme rhyming every other last word to each line. Frost is able to do this beautifully and deeply even with its short length. The poem is usually meant to be read slow because due to its short length every word needs to be heard clearly. The poem is thought to ask a question of "Why?" by many. It could be attributed to all the tough times Frost was going through during the writing of this and all the other poems in A Witness Tree. Though the beauty of the poem is that it has many different interpretations ranging from a variety of different ideas.

Popular interpretations[edit]

There are many different interpretations that exist for this specific poem.Although there are common themes that exist within all the different meanings people find. Most of the common themes that people have come up with are as follows:

Many people think that this poem stands for one's reflection on their past life. The poem offers up the question of whether or not you valued your life. Did you in fact see life for all of its beauty or do you view your life as a waste? The poem asks you to learn from your life and realize that every decision you made was what was right for you and that you need to learn and accept the decisions you have made in your life. Then to value the fact that you had the opportunity to live.

Another interpretation is that the poem displays a deep image of suffering. It portrays the fact that we live in suffering and there is nothing we can do about it. Then the poem relays the question as to "why" we bear the unhappiness that is life. Whixh makes readers think that Frost was heavily intrigued and curious about the "why". So his point for the poem is for the reader to ask themselves that same question so they can be as curious about it as he was.

The poem is also thought to have a religious tie in to catholicism and christianity as well. Some believe that God is proposing a question to his followers. He asks the question of whether or not all the suffering and pain we go through during our lives is worth the gift of life. Is all the misfortune associated with living worth going through life and was it worth him creating this world for us.

About the author[edit]

Robert Frost is an American born poet who lived between the years of 1874 to 1963. He is considered to be one of the more well known and famous American poets [1]. He is widely known for his mastery of the English Language and especially for his knowledge of American colloquial speech. His poems are known for having very intense displays of emotion, social references, and philosophical themes. Frost and his wife Elinor had 6 children 4 daughters and two sons in their faamily. Unfortunately Frost's family endured numerous tragedies over the course of time. Though many people think it was a source of inspiration for many of his poems and contributed to his work and its meaning to the people.

About A Witness Tree[edit]

A Witness Tree is a volume of poetry by Robert Frost written in the year 1942. It has some well known poems in it such as: " The Silken Ten", "Come In", and " The Gift Outright". " A Question" is also written in this volume and often goes unnoticed by the masses. William Pritchard can be quoted in the Cambridge Companion to Robert Frost saying that he thinks the first ten poems in A Witness Tree are the most impressive sequence of poems in all of Frost's work. Pritchard wrote that the poems "contained shocking brutality and delicate tenderness"[2] . This could be due to all of the tragic events that were occuring around the time he wrote this volume. In the 7 years leading up to the volume's eventual publish many serious events occurred within Frost's personal life. He lost his youngest daughter Marjorie due to childbirth complications in 1934, his wife Elinor died of heart failure in 1938, and his son Carol committed suicide in 1940. Even with all the losses Frost continued to write his poetry [3] . There are many love poems in the volume which can be attributed to his secretary whom he had fallen in love with at the time. Though at the same time there were many deep, thought provoking, and extremely deep and remorseful emotions throughout the poems. " A Question" is a prime example. With everything that had happened recently to Frost it can be readily assumed it had influence in this poem and many others. The poem asks a question to its readers. Im sure Frost had many questions during this time in his life. Yet still today this volume remains as one of the unknown or less common of Frost's work. Along with some of its poems like " A Question".

External Links[edit]

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-question/ Short discussion thread on " A Question" http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost/678/comments/2 Another Discussion Thread on " A Question" http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?result_number=1&search_scope=global&query=william+pritchard&id=ccol052163248x_CCOL052163248XA004 William Pritchard's take on Robert Frost and A Witness Tree

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-poetry-of-robert-frost/study-guide/short-summary/ Summary of Frost and some of his works

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ http://www.biography.com/articles/Robert--Frost-9303322?part=4 Gerber, Philip
  2. ^ http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?result_number=1&search_scope=global&query=william+pritchard&id=ccol052163248x_CCOL052163248XA004 Pritchard, William (1975)
  3. ^ http://www.gradesaver.com/the-poetry-of-robert-frost/study-guide/short-summary/ Gradesaver
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