“American Poets Define Their Idea of America as Much Through Technique as Through Theme” Discuss.

“American poets define their idea of America as much through technique as through theme” Discuss.

The concept of ‘America’ has fascinated poets since it was born as a nation from the idea of freedom. With the passing of time the attitudes and values associated with the ideals of this society have been incorporated within poems. Robert Frost’s poem, Out,Out-, presents a picture of the pioneering spirit of America on the frontier in which harsh reality belies Romanticised visions of nature. In contrast, Allen Ginsberg presents a godless urban hell in which the pioneering spirit is replaced by an urban dystopia permeated with commercially dominated values. In contrast to the Puritanical people in Frost’s context, Ginsberg presents people who dwell in anxiety, where decadence permeates their existence. Both poets employ techniques which mirror the culture of their context to explore their themes.

Frost’s Out, Out - is a narrative poem which presents a portrait of pioneering living. The harsh reality of technological advancement intrudes into an idyllic scene, from the outset, to convey Frost’s vision, that America is becoming dangerously altered. He employs onomatopoeia, ‘snarl, buzz’ to present an anti-Eden of buzz saws and other technological developments that commercially exploit the idyllic country side which are contrasted with the spirituality of nature. Sublime images, “Five mountain ranges one behind the other under the sunset far into Vermont,” draws on all the senses to demonstrate what will be lost if nature is destroyed. He illuminates “Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it,” to symbolise the illusion of the frontier into which many during the period sought to venture. However, the personification of the ‘saw’ in the poem from the very beginning with a kind of malicious presence; it “snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled”, vocalises the beast that is the saw and creates drama and tension. By portraying the saw in this way, Frost...