Context:
-Frost moves with his family to England engaging in many new acquaintances with well-known poets and writers
– gathers inspirations from his new environment and the people he met
Literally:
A newly married couple are in their house spending their first night of honeymoon together as suddenly a stranger knocks on the door. He is asking for mercy for the husband to let him in or help him in any way, the husband walks out on the porch and talks to him. In the end, he gives him some bread and other supplies for him to survive the night while debating with himself whether he should have let him in.
Analysis:
– The central question:
Why is this situation designed this way?
–> different kind of love might be contrasting with each other
Who brought this man to the house?
– The stranger
As the stranger knocks on the door he is not audibly asking for anything, the only way through which he communicates are his desperate eyes, making the situation very clear to the bridegroom. The green-white stick in his hand is a symbol for autumn and winter, suggesting the time around which he needed help the most because he could possibly not survive the night on the cold street. As the bridegroom is debating about what he should do he sees that there are no other houses around the street, he could be his only shelter. The husband is wondering why he had to choose their house.
-The bridegroom
Instead of letting him in he went out to the porch, not for his wife to notice anything. As he looks up to the sky he is questioning what the purpose of this man asking him is, why did he have to choose the house and why does the man now have to make a decision between his wife and the stranger. The woodbine is suggesting winter, hard circumstances for the stranger. The wife represents warmth, she is safe inside the home.
The husband has two different kinds of love afflicting him. Should he choose his wife, his passionate and romantic love or should he stick to the norms of agape, giving in to the sacrificial part of love. No matter what he decides someone will be made worse off and through this poem, we know that the passionate and romantic love is more beneficial for him as he chooses to send the stranger away. However, he is still wondering why he had to be the one making this decision, what is the meaning of it. If we live in a constructed design, then why had he be the one asked to sacrifice his romantic love for a stranger?
Romantic side is shown through the fire, glowing coal, rose red, heart’s desire, silver pin, case of gold, bridal home.
The agape side is shown through the half of prayer for poor while its a curse for the rich, autumn, burden, begging for shelter –> empathy.
Resistant read:
– clear imbalance of power structure, whilst one family has a warm home another one has to live on the street
– Gender of the stranger is unknown, most presumingly a man, although men are rather the people with power in society it has failed to recognize all of them.
– Description of the woman as his desire, representing a young woman in a young marriage –> idealism, it is not realistic
– They do not address the actual needs of the poor (gives bread instead of needed shelter)
– Protected wife is not asked about the stranger, she does not know about the difficult decision his husband has to make although marriage is all about that
Close reading:
– Rhyme scheme: ABCB
Alternating lines rhyme in pairs: the contrast between the two types of love (eg. l.2/l.4 & l.6/l.8), the full rhyming lines are the romantic lines, half-rhymes (accented syllables rhyme) occur for the stranger: weak connection to the stranger but the need is bigger than the one of the wife
– Lyrical poem
Focus on the emotions of the husband, because it’s his own judgement/dilemma
– Imaginary
Description of the stranger: they carry nothing but a burden giving the inconvenience to the husband,
The binary vision of love through the parallel line sin pairs of two.
The burden that he carries is combined with his increased need.
Spoken words offer an image to this battled thought.
Husband is battling whether to go back to the wife or care for the stranger but he decides for the stranger
–> Contrast: the romantic is the idealistic version which represents the beginning of a marriage, whereas the stranger represents the harsh reality outside
–> How long can he keep the idealistic setting up? How far can he keep the idealism of love?
–> On the first night of marriage he is faced with reality immediately
–> the stranger has done its harm, the husband will think about him the whole night (consequences of not letting reality in)
Road represents the issues of live.
Green-white stick, contrast between nature and snow, it is the only thing supporting the stranger, symbolises how little he has