The Full Text of “The Wood-Pile”
1Out walking in the frozen swamp one grey day,
2I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.
3No, I will go on farther—and we shall see."
4The hard snow held me, save where now and then
5One foot went through. The view was all in lines
6Straight up and down of tall slim trees
7Too much alike to mark or name a place by
8So as to say for certain I was here
9Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.
10A small bird flew before me. He was careful
11To put a tree between us when he lighted,
12And say no word to tell me who he was
13Who was so foolish as to think what he thought.
14He thought that I was after him for a feather—
15The white one in his tail; like one who takes
16Everything said as personal to himself.
17One flight out sideways would have undeceived him.
18And then there was a pile of wood for which
19I forgot him and let his little fear
20Carry him off the way I might have gone,
21Without so much as wishing him good-night.
22He went behind it to make his last stand.
23It was a cord of maple, cut and split
24And piled—and measured, four by four by eight.
25And not another like it could I see.
26No runner tracks in this year's snow looped near it.
27And it was older sure than this year's cutting,
28Or even last year's or the year's before.
29The wood was grey and the bark warping off it
30And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis
31Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.
32What held it though on one side was a tree
33Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,
34These latter about to fall. I thought that only
35Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
36Could so forget his handiwork on which
37He spent himself, the labour of his axe,
38And leave it there far from a useful fireplace
39To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
40With the slow smokeless burning of decay.
-
“The Wood-Pile” Introduction
-
"The Wood-Pile," by the American poet Robert Frost, is at once a playful and somber look at the relationship between human beings and the natural world, as well as at the joys and dangers of exploration. The poem's speaker describes his surroundings as he walks through a frozen swamp, getting further from home in the process. Exploring this unfamiliar and seemingly unwelcoming place makes the speaker feel profoundly alone. When he stumbles upon an abandoned pile of wood, however, he feels a sense of connection, and imagines that the pile's creator left the wood behind in order to move on to "fresh," or new and invigorating, "tasks." At the same time, the rotting pile wrapped in vines ends the poem with a perhaps unsettling image of death, decay, and impermanence. "The Wood-Pile" was published in Frost's second book, his 1914 collection North of Boston.
-
-
“The Wood-Pile” Summary
-
I was walking around an icy marsh one cloudy day when I stopped and told myself, "I'll turn around. Actually, I'll keep going—and just see what there is." The hard-packed snow supported my weight, except every once in a while when one of my feet fell through. My view was filled with the straight, vertical lines made by tall, slender trees, which all looked too similar to use them to mark any specific location, and so there was no telling where I was: I was just a long way from home. A small bird flew in front of me. He was cautious to land a ways away from me, leaving a tree in between the two of us, and he made no sound that might reveal to me what kind of bird he was. Of course, it was silly of me to imagine what the bird was thinking. He thought I was going after him in order to pluck one of his feathers—a white tail feather—and in his vigilance was like a person who takes everything personally. Had the bird just flown off to one side, he would have realized that I wasn't trying to trick him. At that point I saw a pile of wood and forgot all about the bird, letting his fear of me spur him away in the direction I might have gone, without even bothering to say goodbye to him. The bird flew behind the wood-pile as if preparing to fight me off. The pile was specifically a cord of maple, chopped and halved and stacked, and it measured four by four by eight feet. I couldn't see another pile like it anywhere. No runner had left footprints nearby in the snow from this past year. And it was definitely older than the wood that had been chopped down this year, or the year before, or the year before that. The wood was faded and the bark was peeling and twisting off of it, and the whole pile was sinking into the ground a bit. A flowering vine had grown around it, wrapping it like a package. What kept it together, though, was a tree growing on one side, and on the other side a handmade support system, which was about to give way. I thought that only a person who made a habit of looking for new chores could forget something they'd worked so hard on and just leave it there, far away from a fireplace that might warm a home, to instead warm the icy marsh, to the best of its ability, with the gradual and unnoticeable process of decay.
-
-
“The Wood-Pile” Themes
-
Humanity vs. Nature
“The Wood-Pile” meditates on the complex relationship between human beings and the natural world. The poem consists almost entirely of the speaker describing a walk through an unfamiliar swamp, where he encounters a small, frightened bird and the remnants of human labor in the form of an abandoned wood pile surrounded by vines. The speaker seems to have ambiguous feelings about the natural world, seeing it as menacing, interesting, indifferent, and beautiful all at once. What is clear's that there seems to be some essential divide between human beings and nature, which leaves the speaker feeling isolated and lonely for most of his journey as he's unable to connect with his surroundings.
As the speaker walks through the swamp, he's confronted with a harsh landscape containing no familiarity or warmth. The speaker describes the swamp as “frozen” and “gray,” for instance, and the snow as “hard.” He says that the snow holds him except for when it occasionally gives way and a foot goes through—an image that suggests that nature isn’t entirely supportive or trustworthy. And unlike places marked by human habitation, the swamp is unfamiliar in its uniformity: it all looks the same to the speaker, who can’t tell where he is or where he’s going—only that he is far from home. The speaker feels alone and possibly lost in this uncaring landscape.
When a small bird appears and seems frightened of the speaker, this further suggests that there’s some sort essential divide between humanity and the natural world. The speaker imagines that this bird views him as a threat, and that the creature is thus careful to keep his distance. The little bird, the speaker muses, probably worries that the speaker wants to pluck its feathers, subtly evoking the way that human beings so often use nature for their own ends (and, in doing so, amplify a sense of distrust).
The speaker adds that the bird refuses to tell him who he is, as if he were a human being capable of making the speaker’s acquaintance. Yet the speaker then describes himself as “foolish” for this anthropomorphizing—for treating the bird like a person and presuming to know what the bird is thinking. Deep down, perhaps the speaker believes nature isn’t actually all that interested in his presence, and that genuine communion with nature is simply impossible.
When the speaker then comes across an abandoned wood-pile, this might represent his own loneliness amidst nature’s indifference. The speaker, feeling like he doesn’t really belong here, out in the middle of the swamp, might see himself in this out-of-place pile of wood. At the same time, however, the speaker notices that “clematis” (a kind of flowering vine) had “wound its strings round and round it like a bundle”—effectively wrapping the wood-pile up and incorporating it into the natural landscape. This might suggest nature reclaiming part of itself that human beings once took (i.e., in the process of cutting down a tree for wood), but also might speak to a sense of camaraderie or symbiosis between human beings and the natural world. The mention of the wood decaying also brings to mind the inevitability of death, when human beings, too, will return to the earth.
In the end, then, perhaps people aren’t quite as separate from nature as they think—though whether the divide between these worlds is possible to cross in life remains ambiguous.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
-
Isolation, Exploration, and Connection
In addition to depicting the ambiguous, shifting relationship between people and the natural world, the poem also explores feelings of distinctly human isolation and loneliness. The speaker, wandering further and further into a “frozen swamp,” feels entirely cut off from “home” yet also curious about and eager to find familiarity within in his strange new surroundings. When he finds the wood pile—a marker that another person once stood where the speaker stands—he imagines that the worker who created it left it behind because he, too, felt propelled to move forward, onto “fresh tasks.” Exploring more of the world, the poem ultimately implies, is at once exciting and isolating, as it means leaving the comforts of home and familiarity behind.
The speaker’s journey through the woods emphasizes this tension between curiosity and loneliness. His surroundings are unfamiliar, and he doesn’t quite know where he is, only that he is “far from home.” The speaker thus initially feels the desire to turn around and leave the cold, gray swamp behind. Yet he also feels a pull to keep going—to “see” what else there is to see.
As he does so, a little bird crosses his path. The fact that the speaker anthropomorphizes the bird—treating the creature like a human being—reflects the speaker’s desire to connect with something in this new environment—to perhaps dampen the loneliness created by his own curiosity. The speaker understands that he can’t really know what the bird is thinking, but imagining what’s going through the animal’s mind nevertheless makes him feel less isolated.
The bird then leads him to an abandoned wood pile—in a way, to a reminder of the human world the speaker left behind. On the one hand, the pile suggests that, even in his solitude, the speaker remains linked to other people. Just as the speaker imagined what the bird was thinking, he delves into the mind of the person who created the wood pile, proposing that this worker had so many exciting, new things going on that he forgot about the pile. The speaker feels a sense of connection to this other person, whom he imagines is also motivated by a desire to explore. Like the person who left the wood pile, the speaker himself seems to be someone who “live[s] in turning to fresh tasks.”
At the same time, however, this other person is long gone; all that’s left is the wood pile. And the speaker identifies with the wood itself: alone and cut off from human context, the wood pile is slowly deteriorating. That this symbolic remnant of domestic comfort and warmth is now rotting in the woods might reflect the speaker’s feeling of icy isolating having left home behind.
The poem’s ambiguous ending makes it unclear whether the speaker feels soothed or saddened by the wood pile—or a little of both. This speaks to the joys and pitfalls of exploration and curiosity, which require one to “abandon” familiarity and comfort.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
-
Impermanence and Mortality
“The Wood-Pile” can be read as symbolizing charting the cycle of life and death. The speaker’s movement away from home and forward through the cold swamp echoes the process of getting older, moving further from the security associated with childhood. Eventually, the speaker will “decay” just as the wood-pile is decaying; he will leave the human world and return to the earth. The abandoned wood-pile, unable to do its job of warming a home, might also be a testament to the impermanence of human works—how nothing people create can last forever. This, in turn, is echoed by the impermanence of human life itself.
The speaker’s walk through the swamp can be seen as a symbolic journey through the phases of life. The speaker hesitates early in the poem, thinking of “turn[ing] back” but then carrying on instead. Like a person leaving behind the comfort and familiarity of a childhood home, the speaker’s journey into the swamp is bittersweet because he must leave behind certainty for possibility, knowing he may never find his way back.
The speaker is soon distracted by a bird crossing his path; the bird leads him to a wood-pile that then occupies his attention—he forgets about the bird just as the person who built the wood-pile forgot about the wood. Like the path of life, the path through the swamp is full of diversions and things that feel important for a while yet are soon forgotten. Finally, the speaker sees something of himself in the old, abandoned wood-pile. He notices that “No runner tracks” come anywhere near it and that the wood wasn’t cut this year or the last. In other words, no one thinks of it anymore; there are newer, more interesting things to see elsewhere. Just as the wood-pile has sat here undetected for years, so too will the speaker someday be entirely forgotten.
As the speaker meditates on the wood-pile, he also comes to think about how the fruits of human labor never last; eventually, people die and the things they made while they were alive are abandoned, left to decay. In this way, the poem grapples with the impermanence not just of human beings themselves, but of the things they create.
The speaker notices the care put into the wood-pile by the person who built it—it was “cut and split / And piled—and measured.” This person worked hard to assemble this wood for a fireplace, but now it is just sitting here, slowly decaying, not warming anything. While the speaker tells himself that only someone who had new, more exciting “tasks” to tend to would “forget his handiwork” like this, the poem suggests that in fact all human work is forgotten in time due to the nature of mortality. One can’t help but think the poet himself is thinking of this poem as one of the many artifacts of human “labor” which will eventually be forgotten.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Wood-Pile”
-
Lines 1-3
Out walking in the frozen swamp one grey day,
I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.
No, I will go on farther—and we shall see."The poem establishes its rather unwelcoming setting right away: a cold swamp on a dreary day. Note how the language here is clear and unembellished: it isn't a miserably grey afternoon—it's simply a "grey day." The straightforwardness of the language creates the poem's conversational and realistic feel.
Right away, readers also get a sense of the speaker's internal conflict: this is someone who feels both compelled by and wary of his natural surroundings, and briefly argues with himself about whether to continue on. The poem thus begins in a place of hesitation and uncertainty, as the speaker seems pulled forward by the desire to explore and, at the same time, reluctant to wander further into the unknown. It isn't clear whether this reluctance stems from fear of getting lost, exhaustion, or simply a desire to be around the creature comforts of home.
In any case, the speaker decides to push forward and "see." The speaker isn't even sure what he's looking for—he just wants to "see" what there is to see. His desire to move deeper into the swamp, then, is fueled by a broad curiosity about the natural world and the tug of the unknown.
-
Lines 4-9
The hard snow held me, save where now and then
One foot went through. The view was all in lines
Straight up and down of tall slim trees
Too much alike to mark or name a place by
So as to say for certain I was here
Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.
Unlock all 406 words of this analysis of Lines 4-9 of “The Wood-Pile,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Lines 10-13
A small bird flew before me. He was careful
To put a tree between us when he lighted,
And say no word to tell me who he was
Who was so foolish as to think what
he
thought. -
Lines 14-17
He thought that I was after him for a feather—
The white one in his tail; like one who takes
Everything said as personal to himself.
One flight out sideways would have undeceived him. -
Lines 18-22
And then there was a pile of wood for which
I forgot him and let his little fear
Carry him off the way I might have gone,
Without so much as wishing him good-night.
He went behind it to make his last stand. -
Lines 23-26
It was a cord of maple, cut and split
And piled—and measured, four by four by eight.
And not another like it could I see.
No runner tracks in this year's snow looped near it. -
Lines 27-31
And it was older sure than this year's cutting,
Or even last year's or the year's before.
The wood was grey and the bark warping off it
And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis
Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle. -
Lines 32-34
What held it though on one side was a tree
Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,
These latter about to fall. -
Lines 34-37
I thought that only
Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
Could so forget his handiwork on which
He spent himself, the labour of his axe, -
Lines 38-40
And leave it there far from a useful fireplace
To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
With the slow smokeless burning of decay.
-
-
“The Wood-Pile” Symbols
-
The Swamp
The "frozen swamp" isn't just an actual swamp, but also a symbol of the unknown.
As the speaker wanders through the swamp, he gets farther and farther from home and the comforts of familiarity. He can't tell the trees apart, which makes it impossible for him to mark his "place," and his surroundings seem vaguely menacing. Every once in a while one of his feet slips through the "hard snow," suggesting the unpredictable nature of this new environment. The swamp's strangeness is exciting to the speaker, who is curious about what there is to "see," and also formidable: he could very well end up lost and alone in the cold wilderness!
The swamp is also representative of nature more generally. When the speaker imagines the wood-pile "warm[ing] the frozen swamp as best it could," he is essentially thinking about how small and impermanent human existence is in relation to the vastness of the natural world. Whereas human creations will eventually break down and "decay," the swamp continues to renew itself and is oblivious to the passage of (human) time.
- See where this symbol appears in the poem.
-
The Wood-Pile
By the end of the poem, the wood-pile has come to symbolize death and decay, as well as the impermanence of human life and of the things humans beings leave behind.
When the speaker first encounters the wood-pile, he feels connected to the person who built it. The wood offers a sign of human civilization and comforting familiarity in the middle of the swamp. And yet, while the natural world surrounding the wood-pile is "still growing," the wood-pile itself is falling apart. It "decay[s]," as does its human-made support system holding it up (the "stake and prop"). As "clematis" vines wrap themselves around the wood, readers get the sense that the pile will one day rot entirely and be consumed by the swamp. In this way, "the labor of [the builder's] axe" will disappear, just as the builder himself has.
Also note how the pile is totally isolated, with no tracks nearby indicating that any other person has stumbled upon it in the years since its creation. It's clear that the pile has been abandoned and forgotten; once the person who made it moved on or died, the wood-pile fell into disuse, and it no longer serves the purpose for which it was made (that is, warming a "useful fireplace").
In this way, the wood-pile might also represent the isolation and lack of utility or functionality often associated with old age in Western culture. If the speaker's journey through the swamp is taken as a metaphorical journey through the stages of life (as he moves farther away from youth and "home"), then the wood-pile is the endpoint, the destination: it represents a future in which the speaker no longer serves a purpose and is eventually left behind and forgotten.
- See where this symbol appears in the poem.
-
-
“The Wood-Pile” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Anthropomorphism
The speaker anthropomorphizes the bird that crosses his path, imbuing the creature with distinctly human emotions and thoughts.
For example, the speaker says that the bird refuses to tell him "who he [the bird] was." Literally, the speaker is talking about the fact that the bird is quiet, meaning the speaker can't figure out what species it is from its call. Phrasing it in this way, however, makes it seem like the bird is actively choosing not to introduce itself. The speaker also images that the bird perceives him as a threat—that the speaker is "after" it "for a feather"—and compares the creature to someone who takes everything too personally. Finally, when the bird flies behind the pile of wood, the speaker describes the creature as making "his last stand," as though the two are in a showdown in the forest.
The fact that the speaker treats the bird like a person reflects the speaker's own loneliness. Out in the swamp, far from anything familiar, the speaker longs for some sort of connection with his surroundings. He seemingly can't help but view the little bird as being like himself, even as he knows that it's "foolish [...] to think what he [the bird] thought." In other words, he knows it's impossible to diving whatever was going through the creature's mind, but finds himself imagining its thoughts anyway.
At the end of the poem, the speaker also treats the wood-pile like a human being (though this is better described as figurative personification rather than anthropomorphism). The speaker describes it as "warm[ing] the frozen swamp as best it could." Of course, the wood-pile has no intentions of its own; the phrase "as best it could" is a projection of the speaker's own perception of the scene. Knowing another person has been here makes the place feel a little more familiar and welcoming to the speaker, who thus looks upon the wood-pile with fondness.
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Assonance
Unlock all 220 words of this analysis of Assonance in “The Wood-Pile,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Consonance
-
Alliteration
-
Repetition
-
Enjambment
-
Imagery
-
Simile
-
Metaphor
-
-
“The Wood-Pile” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Lighted
- Undeceived
- Cord of Maple
- Warping
- Clematis
Lighted-
Gently landed on.
- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Wood-Pile”
-
Form
The poem takes the form of a single stanza made up of 40 lines. The lines aren't particularly narrow or long, nor do they vary much in length (they're typically 10 syllables long, give or take). The overall shape of the poem is reminiscent of the speaker's walk through the swamp ("The view was all in lines / straight up and down"), and is typical of Frost's work in that it doesn't draw a lot of attention to itself. In other words, the form isn't experimental, but rather traditional for a poem with a narrative arc (the speaker is on a literal journey through the swamp and a metaphorical journey through the cycle of life).
-
Meter
"The Wood-Pile" is written blank verse, or in unrhymed iambic pentameter. This means that lines contain five iambs (poetic feet in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable). Take line 5, for example:
One foot | went through. | The view | was all | in lines
Blank verse gives the poem a feeling of structure and a noticeable rhythm. This poem also has some pretty irregular stresses, however, so though it can be considered blank verse overall, it has a loose, conversational feel. Take the last line for example:
With the | slow smoke- | less burn- | ing of | decay.
The irregularity of the poem meter might subtly mimic the way the orderly "cut and measured" woodpile is slowly decaying and being overtaken by nature, losing its sense of orderly precision and becoming wilder.
-
Rhyme Scheme
The poem does not have a rhyme scheme, and in fact hardly uses rhyme at all! The lack of rhyme scheme keeps the poem feeling conversational and unpredictable. A steady pattern of rhyme wouldn't quite fit with the speaker's sense of meandering curiosity and exploration as he travels deeper into the swamp.
-
-
“The Wood-Pile” Speaker
-
The speaker of "The Wood-Pile," like the speakers in many of Frost's best-loved poems, is someone who is out in nature, "far from home," with a decision to make: will he turn around and return to what is familiar, or will he go on, and see what there is to see?
This speaker chooses to continue his journey into the swamp, a choice that suggests his desire to explore and be confronted with "new tasks" rather than the familiarity of old ones. His desire to keep going, though, isn't just the mark of an adventuresome spirit—it seems there is some sadness, some sense of loneliness, driving him on, for he looks for connection in unlikely places: a passing bird, an abandoned wood-pile.
"Like one who takes / Everything said as personal to himself," the speaker is someone who sees himself mirrored back to him in the fear of the little bird and the forgotten disarray of the wood-pile. And yet he finds connection in these unlikely places too: there is something almost comforting about the way the wood-pile is being reclaimed by the swamp, flowering vines wrapping it up and a tree growing to support it. In the end, it isn't really clear if the speaker is happy or sad, frightened or comforted—the poem gives him room to experience all of it, and it is that complexity which makes the speaker so compelling.
Though readers may assume that the speaker is Robert Frost himself, given the poet's well-documented love of the natural world, the poem never actually tells readers the speaker's age, name, profession, or gender. Instead, the specifics in the poem belong to the natural world that surrounds the speaker. In a way, this reinforces the poem's thematic idea that human beings are just one small, impermanent part of the world.
-
-
“The Wood-Pile” Setting
-
The setting of "The Wood-Pile" is a frozen swamp on a dreary day in the middle of winter. There's snow all around, as well as tall, slender, leafless trees that fill the speaker's view. These trees all look the same to the speaker, which makes it impossible for him to figure out exactly where he is; there are no familiar markers to orient him. This reinforces the speaker's sense of loneliness and isolation, as well as the tension between nature and humanity. The speaker is far from home—far from the comforts and familiarity of the human world—and feels somewhat like an unwelcome intruder in this natural scene.
Deep in the swamp, the speaker stumbles upon an abandoned wood-pile—a marker of another person having stood where the speaker now stands. While the wood makes the speaker think about the person who made it, the setting is still ultimately a natural one: the wood is decaying, its bark peeling off, its weight sinking into the ground. It's being reclaimed by the swamp; vines are growing all over it, and a tree supports it on one side while the human system of supports (a "stake and prop") slowly deteriorate. The setting, then, reflects the impermanence of everything that humans do and make in relation to the ever-growing natural world, which the poem implies is indifferent to the affairs of human beings.
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “The Wood-Pile”
Literary Context
“The Wood-Pile” was published in 1914 in Robert Frost's second poetry collection, North of Boston. Frost’s work is often considered traditional or conventional in relation to the Modernist poets of the time, who were experimenting with form, rhyme, and meter. And yet, there is something quite untraditional about the attitudes of Frost's speakers, who often seem to be always immersed in some kind of subtle internal conflict.
For instance, "The Road Not Taken," possibly Frost's most well-known poem, concludes with the speaker famously deciding to take the road "less traveled" and then noting that this has "made all the difference." While many people recognize and can probably even recite these poem's lines, their interpretation will vary greatly due to Frost's ability to imbue crystal clear imagery with ambiguous significance. Though it's widely considered to be a poem about making unconventional choices, the poem never actually reveals whether the speaker thinks his choices have resulted in a more fulfilling life. This kind of openness to interpretation is typical of Frost's work, and can be seen in "The Wood-Pile" as well.
"The Wood-Pile" also contains themes that are remarkably similar to those captured in Frost's earlier poem, "The Tuft of Flowers." Both poems feature a lonely speaker who is walking through a natural setting, lost in his thoughts; both feature an animal that leads the speaker to some sort of epiphany regarding the connectedness of human beings and the natural world. And while "The Wood-Pile" is perhaps not so optimistic as "The Tuft of Flowers," both showcase Frost's interest in common people and everyday language.
While Frost’s first two books were published in England, after the publication of North of Boston he quickly began to gain traction with American audiences. This was in large part due to the support of the Imagist poets Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell, who championed his work. Frost himself, however, didn’t associate his work with any particular movement. Instead, he developed his own style based on using ordinary language to evoke meaning and emotional depth, something he referred to as “the sound of sense.”
Frost's interests in colloquial speech and the wonder of the natural world tie his work to one of his earliest and most profound influences, the Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In turn, Frost has influenced countless poets and remains a towering presence in American literature.
Historical Context
The publication of this poem in 1914 coincided with the start of the First World War, when Frost and his family were living in England. Though he didn’t write directly about the war, something of the pessimism and despair of this time in history is present in much of Frost's poetry, though typically softened by a sense of curiosity and connection to the world around him.
Many of Frost’s most famous poems can be read at least partially through the lens of his own personal hardships. While “The Wood-Pile” makes no direct reference to events Frost lived through in his early life, it’s not difficult to imagine how a string of early deaths, including those of two of his children (he would eventually see all but two of his children die before him), affected his view of the world.
It's also possible that the “swamp” in “The Wood-Pile” is based on a real swamp Frost visited in 1894. That year, Elinor White, a high-school sweetheart whom he would eventually marry, had turned down his marriage proposal due to his not having a job. Dejected, Frost traveled to The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia, where he considered ending his life. The theme of the lone, despairing person who journeys into nature to find either obliteration or a revived sense of connection and inspiration would become a hallmark of Frost’s work.
-
More “The Wood-Pile” Resources
-
External Resources
-
A Reading of the Poem — Listen to "The Wood-Pile" read out loud.
-
Frost's Biography — A quick introduction to Frost's life and poetry.
-
Robert Frost's New England — An article from the Smithsonian about the New England landscapes that inspired Frost's poetry.
-
What Is a Cord of Wood? — Learn more about the "four by four by eight" pile of wood mentioned in the poem.
-
The Great Dismal Swamp — Learn more about the real Virginia swamp that may have inspired "The Wood-Pile."
-
-
LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Frost
-
