Notes

Question #1
Due to a difference in attitude towards nature, the boy in William Wordsworth’s “There Was a Boy” and the boy in Robert Frost’s “The Most of It” have different experiences with nature. In Wordsworth’s poem, the boy has a loud, joyous interaction with nature whereas the boy in Frost’s poem has a lonely encounter with nature. Both boys are placed in natural settings, and with the use of personification, diction, and imagery, Wordsworth depicts a boy experiencing bliss through his connection with nature whereas Frost depicts a boy experiencing despair in his solitude.

Wordsworth personifies nature by giving the island the ability to recognize the boy. However, in Frost’s poem, nature lacks lively qualities. The island’s recognition of the boy establishes a connection between the two as if both the boy and the island were capable of intelligent thought and emotion. Nature is personified in a manner that allows the boy to form a bond typically only seen between animate characters. In contrast, the diction in Frost’s poem portrays nature as a unresponsive background capable of only “copy speech.” Frost ends the poem with “and that was all,” implying that there was a void left unfilled, perhaps a lack of liveliness.

Both boys made attempts to interact with nature through vocal projections. While Wordsworth’s boy receives hoots of acknowledgement, Frost’s boy gets an empty echo. In Wordsworth’s poem, owls were “responsive to his call… screams, and echoes loud… concourse wild of jocund din!” Such a lively, joyous response indicates an actual interaction between the boy and nature. Wordsworth’s use of auditory imagery in the lines establishes the connection between nature and the boy. On the other hand. Frost’s boy receives his cry back in “copy speech” and “nothing ever came of what he cried” besides the “embodiment that crashed in the cliff’s talus” and “in the far-distant water splashed.” In these lines, Frost’s diction and visual imagery paint an image of the boy’s loneliness in nature. The image of rock debris falling off a cliff radiates feelings of a depressing isolation. To say the boy’s attempt to form a connection resulted in “nothing” signifies failure. Even the water splash which could be interpreted as a positive response, happens at a distance away from the boy. Frost’s diction clearly displays the boy experiencing sorrow in solitude.

Wordsworth’s poem ends with a content feeling whereas Frost’s poem ends with dissatisfaction. The ending of Wordsworth’s poem is a utilizes visual imagery in in a description of the beautiful natural scenery. Even “in that silence” Wordsworth's boy does not feel lonely. He is captivated by his natural surroundings and knows how to appreciate its beauty. However, Frost’s poem ends with a sense of incompleteness. The phrase “and that was all” implies that the boy was expecting more and feels disappointed with his encounter with nature.

The attitude towards nature in Wordsworth’s poem is positive whereas the attitude in Frost’s poem is discontent. Through the poets’ uses of imagery, personification, and diction, a joyous, responsive interaction between Wordsworth’s boy and nature is established, and a lonely, unresponsive encounter between Frost’s boy and nature is recounted. These contrasting attitude demonstrate how similar experiences can be connected to contrasting feelings due to different interpretations of nature’s actions.