Sunday, April 27, 2014

To Earthward

To Earthward
By Robert Frost

Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air

That crossed me from sweet things,
The flow of—was it musk
From hidden grapevine springs
Downhill at dusk?

I had the swirl and ache
From sprays of honeysuckle
That when they’re gathered shake
Dew on the knuckle.

I craved strong sweets, but those
Seemed strong when I was young;
The petal of the rose
It was that stung.

Now no joy but lacks salt,
That is not dashed with pain
And weariness and fault;
I crave the stain

Of tears, the aftermark
Of almost too much love,
The sweet of bitter bark
And burning clove

When stiff and sore and scarred
I take away my hand
From leaning on it hard
In grass and sand

The hurt is not enough:
I long for weight and strength
To feel the earth as rough
To all my length.




Robert Frost’s “To Earthward” focuses on the influential role time plays on the development of love and reveals that love can sometimes bring pain and bitterness but those struggles are what make love taste even sweeter. The first stanza of the poem illustrates the “honeymoon” period of a new love. The speaker is overjoyed and enamored. So much so that it “seemed too much” and he “lived on air”. Underneath the surface of this sweet love, however, there is a sense of foreboding. This is seen in the second stanza as the smell of musk is mentioned, “That crossed me from sweet things, /
The flow of—was it musk.” Musk is a strong, animalistic scent that is often used in the undertones of perfume. It is a scent that is also associated with sex because it is an aphrodisiac. Juxtaposed against the “sweet things” that suggest innocence, the scent of musk that the speaker smells is used to foreshadow the maturity and darkness of the relationship that is to come. The last line of the second stanza, “Downhill at dusk?” has a similar effect. “Downhill” paints a picture of uneven ground for this relationship. Flat, leveled ground would mean that the love will be smooth and easy, but by illustrating uneven ground, the speaker is foreshadowing difficulties that would soon to come. “Dusk” is the time of day when the sun is setting. While beautiful and colorful, dusk brings darkness as day turns to night. The transition from day to night symbolizes the transition of the love from shallow sweetness to a love with more maturity and difficulty. The speaker admits that while he was younger, he “craved strong sweets” such as “honeysuckle” and “the petal of the rose”. But he realizes now that “Now no joy but lacks salt, / That is not dashed with pain / And weariness and fault; / I crave the stain.” Salt, which is the opposite of sugar and sweetness, represents the difficulties that come with love and relationships. So the line, “Now no joy but lacks salt”, goes to convey that everything that brings joy is “dashed with pain and weariness and fault”. Still, the speaker craves “the stain”, which means that he loves because of these difficulties that come with a deeper relationship. He cherishes the bitterness and the tears, viewing those as “the aftermark / Of almost too much love,” evidence that their love is real. He compares these feelings in the next stanza to times when his hand is “stiff and sore and scarred” “From leaning on it hard / In grass and sand.” Grass and sand are pleasant parts of nature, but leaning on it hard can leave imprints and soreness. This comparison ties back into the line, “Now no joy lacks salt.” To bring his transformation from a boy who craved only the shallow sweetness of love to a man that learned to understand how the pain of love creates joy, the speaker concludes by saying that “The hurt is not enough: / I long for weight and strength / To feel the earth as rough / To all my length.”