Q1. With reference to any of his two poems, discuss Frost's ideas about death and afterlife.
Frost has witnessed death of his loved ones a number of times. In some of his early works we find his grief entwined with grave messages about death such as its unpredictability. Yet these messages about death are at times also silver-lined with a sweet sense of hope that comes with the idea of life after death. His poems show a denial of death until man learns to not only accept it but also look towards the calm that he perhaps believes comes after it. The poems 'Gathering Leaves' and 'After Apple Picking' convey his ideas about life and death.
Frost has presented a vivid similarity between the structure of the two poems. They both begin with momentous rhymes and sensuous imagery that present the beauty of manual labour and how it perhaps tends to distract a human from the idea of death. Labour also symbolises life and the idea that perhaps there is no life without movement. Frost has perhaps presented inanimate objects as a symbol of veiled death. In 'After..' the ladder is sticking out towards heaven perhaps is being reflected by Frost as a bridge between life and the after life or as death. Frost has illustrated a barrel that is not filled perhaps hinting at a sense of regret after death. Similarly Frost has portrayed a spade in 'Gathering Leaves' taking up the dead leaves, maybe symbolising death taking lives as if they were 'light as balloons'. Thus Frost has presented death and life through casual yet powerful images that draw the readers into the depths of the poems.
Frost has displayed a setting of perhaps autumn, it is perhaps a time of death but also regrowth. In 'Gathering Leaves' Frost has shown the persona to have left the leaves in the shed where they will probably decay. At first we get the idea that the leaves have been left to die because they are useless but then Frost presents the stanza, 'But a crop is a crop' and it perhaps signifies that everything had potential even in death. Perhaps the leaves will decay and make the soil fertile for the next harvest. It perhaps represents the cycle of life and death and resurrection in the after life. It also perhaps depicts the idea of passing on experiences to those that come after you. Similarly in 'After..' the title itself hints at the happenings of a time that comes after the end of life. Frost has displayed that apples that went bad went to the cedar-apple heap yet again portraying that death is not the end. Thus Frost has presented the idea of existence and potential lasting even after death. He has also succeeded to introduce a hope among readers that perhaps things can not be brought back to how they were before but a new purpose can be found when the previous one is lost.
In both poems Frost has presented a turning point. In 'After..' we perhaps are shown that the apple-picker's time is coming to an end as he is displayed to be tired though the imagery of the blurred glass and the change in rhyme scheme towards the end. In 'Gathering..' the persona is shown to first struggle with the leaves by loading and unloading them but eventually he fills them into a shed and watches them decay. Thus Frost portrays that a time comes when death finds you and you can not escape it. Frost also depicts the powerful imagery of apples and leaves in abundance symbolising the persona's desires. Perhaps the persona in 'After..' has unfulfilled dreams before he dies but he finds comfort in the fact that his struggle with life is over as the stanza 'I am done with apple-picking now' presents. Similarly perhaps the persona in 'Gathering..' has had enough of struggling after his desires and compiling the leaves into the shed and leaving them to decay is perhaps a symbol of accepting death. Perhaps when the persona is shown to question if the harvest will stop he is questioning whether life really ends after death. Thus Frost establishes how the clash between life and death can bring about regrets and tiredness but perhaps the after life hold more in store.
Frost's best poems are concerned with the meeting between man and death. Frost has shown me to cherish life regardless of the ups and downs. He has shown me not to deem something useless just because it has fulfilled its purpose or has become useless. He has shown me to hold on to regrets and take advantage of the opportunities that come my way. He has taught me not to lose hope and to look beyond the inevitable.