Sound Effects In Robert Frost's Poetry

Robert Frost (1874―1963) is one of the most widely-known American poets of the twentieth century. In his whole life, he kept writing and publishing fine poems for decades. His poetic volumes contain oft-quoted and widely loved works including beautiful lyrics and narrative poem. The charm of Frost's poetry is heightened by the common speech, the rich images, the unique wisdom and, above all, the marvelous sound effects. His poetry, as pure as the lotus flowers above water, never fail to capture inspiration from the routine of daily life or probe into the philosophy of life by describing various pictures.He stresses the importance of sound effects in poetic writing. Therefore, there are a lot of sound images in his poetic lines such as the roaring wind, the falling snow, the singing birds and the flowing stream; at the same time we also hear the sound of human beings such as their mournful crying, weak murmuring and flaming debate. Listening attentively to these sounds we have got a special way to comprehend the endless intelligence transmitted by Frost.His creative theory"sentence sounds"also serves as an effective method for him to be a perfect poet. Influenced deeply by Wordsworth he is fond of the language of the common people in New England and good at capturing the spoken sentences and the experienced utterance. He believes that every syllable, word and sentence in the poem should have its particular sound. As a result, the metrical poetic lines and the natural flow of real speaking are balanced to convey his ideas. This paper, including three chapters, intends to analyze the sound effects of his poems from three different angles.Chapter One analyzes the sound effects of his auditory images. His poems are charged with vivid sound images either from the natural world or from human labour. Listening to the breeze, the snow, the bird, the mowing and so on gives us a brand new way to appreciate his poetic creation.Chapter Two is about the sound effects of his conversational style. Frost arranges many dialogues and monologues in his writing. The readers, to be more exactly, the listeners are attracted to every scene of the characters'"performance."Skillfully, Frost has his poem understood by his readers by means of sound.Chapter Three discusses the sound effects of his poetical lines. In this chapter, the exact sound effects of syllables, words, rhymes and meters are illustrated respectively. Poetry, just as music, is a vocal art depending on the human voice to become its full self. It is the melodious sound that helps him to fly his own colour in the history of American literature.These three chapters form an organic whole, drawing the readers closer and closer to the creative Frostian poetic world: at first, the readers are listening to the sound images far away; then, they are watching the characters nearby; finally, they are with the poet to enjoy the poems word by word. In this way, Frost incisively expresses his profound outlook on both world and life. His poetry is not only words printed on pages but has lively sound effects penetrating in the vivid images, simple language and harmonious meter. He is a great poet deeply loved both by the American people and by other peoples all over the world.