Meeting and Passing Robert Frost

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MEETING AND PASSING - Robert Frost * It is an Elizabethan sonnet and a narrative. * In the title, “Meeting and Passing” there is a sense of expectation that hasn’t been fulfilled - a missed opportunity. * The colloquial tone in the first 3 lines sets up an exposition. The persona “I” is walking along a wall and leaning against it to get a better view. And unexpectedly (to the scene, but expected by the reader), “I first saw you”. * The exposition in the poem mostly focuses on the persona and what he/she sees. The “you” in the poem, no matter the importance, will act mostly like scenery in the poem used to explain the speaker’s outlook on “meeting and passing”. The more conceptual the “you” is, then the more of a projection the speaker creates. * How does the poem emphasize on the aesthetics of language? * Diction - choice of words * Syntax * Rhyme * Semantics - meanings of words * Meter * “I” is the persona not the poet (poet of nature - rural landscape) * Profundity of feelings is seen * Emphasizes a human predicament * Referred to as an anti-romantic poem * Interested in simpler and day to day things in life * Reference is made to a hill near New Hampshire. The poem is taken from his anthology ‘Mountain Interval’. * Visual imagery is used though he wasn’t an imagist himself. (“Footprints in summer dust”, the hill, the wall). * A very controlled depiction of emotions is seen. The opening style is very passive and there is no climax in the poem. Expresses the poet’s salutary belief in sympathetic correspondence. * The footprints they make in the sand can clearly be distinguished which shows that they haven’t merged in love but like their footprints are only mingling. They retain separate identities, though they are not completely separated, nor are they completely
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