What is Robert Frost trying to say in his poem Birches?

Question

please give a paragraph and i would appreiciate it

Answer 1

In addition to the other answer, I would also point out that Frost uses a lot of counterpoint imagery. Think light and dark, heaven and h**l, life and death, etc. In this one, I think he is playing off the changes one goes through as they age. Yes, thinking back on his youth, but not regretfully, not simplistically.

In the end of the poem, we see the depth of his reason:

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,   55

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Even if it is a waste of time, ultimately it is a thing he remembers fondly, and there's no harm in that.

Answer 2

I think he is yearning for his youth. He remembers the trees covered with ice and compares them to boys swinging on them. I don't know how old he was when he wrote this but it is not uncommon for older men to yearn for there youth.

There is an old saying "youth is wasted on the young."

It says a lot.

Good luck!

Al