Preview

Analysis of "The Lockless Door" by Robert Frost

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1180 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis of "The Lockless Door" by Robert Frost
The Lockless Door by Robert Frost shows how an individual is either running away from his conscience or from opportunity. Although there are two sides in this poem, both sides are actually connected to each other in a way so that they make a circle. The Lockless Door show the past and the future at the same time.

If the poem is the case of his conscience, then the individual is perhaps tortured or agonized by something of the past. Frost shows this theme when the door is knocked twice. The person in the poem does not open the door, but he acknowledges the knock. These knocks represent the regrets that the individual has had in his past which is presented in the last two lines of the second stanza, And raised both hands/In prayer to the door. The speaker knows he must open the door and face whatever is behind it, but he seems to be resigned by the knock, as if he can only exist but not thrive. Thus by running away, the individual tinks he can solve the problem, I climbed on the sill/And descended outside. The person in the poem even tries to fool the knock,Back over the sillI bade a Come inTo whoever the knockAt the door may have beenHowever, the person only fools himself when he decides to escape his conscience and go back to the real world. Unfortunately, when faced with the real world, the person once again hides away from his conscience, knowing that it is inevitable to escape his past and his conscience because he will be tormented again. However, as he hides in a new world and Alters with age Frost shows that the person is changing, getting older, altering in a physical fashion. So hopefully, the person will also change in maturity and recognize that when his conscience knocks again, it becomes a window of opportunity.

Thus if this situation had been the latter and the person in the poem is scared of opportunity and the chance of failure, the results of the individuals actions would be very different. This is represented with the actual knock at the door,



Bibliography: The Lockless Door- Robert Frost

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    A great deal of literary works are written with the purpose of telling story. A narrative poem simply tells a story from the perspective of a narrator who does not reveal their personal thoughts or feelings. A prime example of a narrative poem would be Out, out, by Robert Frost in which the story of a little boy losing his life with a detached narrator.…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This essay discusses the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. This poem describes a man who is walking in the woods. As he is walking, he finds that the path he is on splits into two roads. He is forced to decide which road to take in order to continue his journey. Throughout the rest of the poem, he describes the experience of his journey. Frost uses many poetic devices throughout this poem. He uses metaphor to describe the road as a part of life. He also uses rhyme scheme to show the important phrases and words to help the reader understand and comprehend the message behind the poem. Finally, Frost makes use of alliteration and similes to draw the reader closer to the text and compare his experience to other occurrences…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mirsoslav Holub’s poem ‘The Door’ deals with the theme of change. The poem suggests that individuals should shift beyond their comfort zones and open themselves to the possibility of change.…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    I sense that the speaker is a male. I get this feeling from the way he hides his pain. Concealing your feelings is often considered the masculine thing to do, and the speaker does this throughout the entire poem. He is writing about a past experience in his childhood. I sense that the poem comes from an outside perspective, yet not too far out. The speaker is not the one doing the fighting, but, perhaps he is watching it–living it–as the child of two disputing parents. The stanza "certain doors were locked at night, feet stood for hours outside them . . . " indicates to me that the speaker was a child when this took place. He watched as his father stood outside the locked bedroom door, shouting to be let in. He watched as the dishes piled up in the sink and his mother was too occupied with the fights to clean them. These are the images that the poem puts into my head,…

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost's “Acquainted with the Night” describes a life that is filled with depression caused by isolation. Many believe this could have been written from Frost's own personal experiences, since it is well known that he experienced a very sad life with the losses of many of his close relatives. This would have left him feeling alone and detached, therefore giving him the inspiration for this poem. When examining the title's literal meaning, one can see Frost’s illustration of how he is very familiar with these dark and lonely feelings that seem to come with the night. The night, and these feelings, are nothing new to him. He uses an exceptionally descriptive setting, diverse symbols, and a unique style to develop his poem. In this poem Frost uses many symbols like the rain, the watchman, and the moon to illustrate the speaker’s depression, as…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem “Mending Wall” Robert Frost uses form, function, and philosophy to create meaning. To do this he uses many different techniques like blank verse, enjambment, end-stopped lines, syntax, meter, and iambic pentameter. These techniques are used to support the main theme of tradition versus innovation.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The reason for beginning with Frost’s poem from the literal stance is to establish a foundation in which symbols are used as metaphors. “Mending Wall,” is literally after winter when the speaker and his neighbor repair the wall. A wall which was damaged by unseen nature and hunters. As they repair the wall the speaker questions the reason why the neighbor wants the wall repaired. He infers that their trees are different and produce opposite things. Even though, the speaker internally questions why the neighbor wants to keep this wall amid them, he wonders if he can cause the neighbor to question his own ideas about the wall. He does not act on this thought instead he continues to walk down the wall rebuilding it from his side, as the neighbor does the same.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    to themselves, Frost uses this to tell the story in ‘The Wood-Pile’ showing how this poem is moving forward it is an expedition. ‘The hard snow held me, save where now and then’ the words used here come across as very harsh as snow is normally soft not hard, this inflicts the change in the nature in the area of where the narrator is it always uses visual imagery so the picture of the woods is shown. ‘A small bird flew before me’ A technique that Frost uses is anthropomorphism which is used for the bird, as he shows him as if it is his "last stand".…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost, in his poem “A Dust of Snow,” reveals that surprising moments can pull us out of serious depressions. He establishes this idea first by using the symbolic meaning of crow to create unhappiness and darkness; second, by the diction of the word snow which would normally mean a slow accumulation, but in this poem, this man’s life has slowly come to the point where everything is bad for him; third, by the connotative use the hemlock tree which is a poisonous tree, but it is used to stirrup some good in the person’s situation; fourth, by ironically saying that the crow saved him and renewed hope and life to him; lastly, by the use of diction with the word rued which means regret, but in this poem, the crow stopped the man from doing…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If a stone is missing form the fence, you can bet that the two men are out there putting it back together piece by piece. Frost's description of every detail in this poem is quite interesting, very pleasant to read, and extremely imaginable. He leaves the reader to decide for himself what deductions he is to make from the reading. On one hand, Frost makes literal implications about what the two men are doing. For instance, they are physically putting the stones back, one by one. Their dedication, commitment, and constant drive shines through when reading how persistence these men seem about keeping the wall intact. Quite the contrary however, is the inferences that something even deeper is going on. There is a sharing experience taking place here. Indeed, by laboring so hard, each man is experiencing physical repercussions, but they are also using this time as a "meet and greet"…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Routine is a concept that we, as people, have very specific limitations for. Too little routine in our lives and we long for stability; too much routine, on the other hand, and we become crazed prisoners of monotony. In James Joyce’s “Araby”, the account of one Dublin youth, the nameless narrator’s desire for change manifests itself though the pursuance of Mangan’s sister and his continuous frustration with the monotony of daily life, resulting in the eventual epiphany of the desperation of his cause as an unavoidable byproduct of Dublin life.…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main themes of Robert frosts poetry are: Nature and mans interaction with it. Also real people and real struggle; the deeper meanings of everyday life. For this essay I will discuss 'mending wall', 'the road not taken', 'out, out-' and 'provide, provide’.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost Poem Analysis

    • 2352 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Guiding Question: What do the speakers of Frost’s poems reveal about themselves through the stories they tell?…

    • 2352 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the popular interpretation, the poem is inspirational, a paean to individualism and non-conformism. Popular interpretations take the last two lines literally, as meaning that the speaker was a courageous nonconformist in taking a road few other people had taken.…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the poem opens, we see a very formal phrase “something there is”, and rather formal diction. However, the language is natural in the sense that it does not rhyme. Also, we have a sense that there is a tumbling forth of ideas about the things that want to destroy a wall. We see this from the phrases, “that sends…and spills…and makes gaps.” Some invisible force exists that doesn’t love a wall. So the speaker is setting the tone and implying that part of himself does not love walls.…

    • 886 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics