Impact of Modernity in the Writings of Robert Frost

Exploring Modernity through Robert Frost's Writings

by Rekha Goel*, Dr. Ankit Gandhi,

- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540

Volume 20, Issue No. 2, Apr 2023, Pages 166 - 169 (4)

Published by: Ignited Minds Journals


ABSTRACT

The literary and cultural movement known as modernism emerged in the early decades of the twentieth century, particularly in the wake of World War I, and spread across the arts. The literature of the Movement is distinguished by its use of novel themes, structures, and ideas. The first works of modern art appeared in Europe's major cities before making their way to the United States and Europe's academic centers. The beliefs of late nineteenth-century intellectuals like Freud, Marx, Darwin, and Nietzsche, together with the rapidly developing technologies of the time, form the foundation of modernism. Robert Frost gives ordinary things and events a special importance. He gives everyday occurrences a profound significance. His poems always start with an image and conclude with a thought. The moral truth is at the heart of all of his finest poetry. Oftentimes, he'll utilize something ordinary as a metaphor to shed light on some deeper, more universal truth in poetry.

KEYWORD

modernity, writings, Robert Frost, literary and cultural movement, modernism, themes, structures, ideas, late nineteenth-century intellectuals, technologies, ordinary things, profound significance, image, thought, moral truth, metaphor, universal truth, poetry

INTRODUCTION

Modernity has not been an outsider idea for the Indian society, and that general current values like populism, singular opportunity, secularism and historical cognizance have been particularly an innate piece of our society. Today the belief systems of Western modernity with their thoughts of libertarianism and individual decision, their featuring the significance of material rewards as opposed to the spirit of human movement, their accentuation on human goals instead of points of confinement, have prompted far reaching social jealousy, unbridled covetousness and childishness in Indian society. Gusfield (1967) contended that tradition and modernity are broadly utilized as perfect inverses in a direct hypothesis of social change. Gusfield displayed seven false notions in this complexity use. As per him, it is off base to see traditional social orders as static, normatively steady, or fundamentally homogenous. The relations between the traditional and the cutting edge don't really include uprooting, conflict, or eliteness. Modernity does not really debilitate tradition. Both tradition and modernity structure the bases of philosophies and developments in which the perfect inverses are changed over into desires, however traditional structures may supply support for, just as against, change. Like other typical contemporary poems, Frost's poem not only acts in this manner, but also identifies itself as a poem that would be in these terms, which is a significant departure from poetry written in prior eras. It is not just the rich complexity of its meaning that makes it elusive; rather, it is an elusiveness that proclaims itself as such with an imperious confidence of tone, full of Miltonic organ notes that inflate the reader's expectations to the point where their unfulfillment is made explicit. A condition "beyond confusion" is promised, but the reader is not given any details about what this would entail. Despite the abundance of suggestions, he is left with no real direction. Although this may cause the "blank wall" sensations described by Pearce, it does provide light on certain methodological realities. That meaning can be a spectrum joining contrary thoughts, like old-new or imaginary-real, and that consequently, even the most harmonious thought naturally displays some tension within the elements of its system, and must generate some measure of doubt and of formlessness are just a few of the lessons we pick up from experience's apparent inconsistencies.

MODERNIZATION

The term modernization alludes to the transformation of the traditional into a progressively current one. It suggests a slow however fundamental change in the way of life of the general population and in their viewpoint of the world. Consequently modernization is the new feature of tradition. One can't comprehend modernization in isolation on the grounds that an individual is comprised of a past and a present. Modernization is both a hypothesis and a procedure. As a hypothesis it has offered spot to the judgment of an expansive number of traditions; as a procedure it has landed itself to post modernity, which is in certainty hypermodernity or late modernity. There modernized to the degree that its individuals utilize inanimate sources of intensity and instruments to multiply the impacts of their endeavors, which is clear from the technological aspect of modernization. Institutional feature of modernization is as essential as is technological. It alludes to the emergence or dominance of current establishments like administration, callings, showcase economy, processing plant framework, formal arrangement of advanced education and so forth. A particular element of current establishments is their formal hierarchical character which is the thing that recognized them from their traditional partners. Objective reorientation of the given value framework is the third necessary feature of modernization. In the sense, modernization infers a transition from traditional to modernity. Utilized in its optimal, regular sense, tradition signifies a constellation of such values as consecration, credit, particularism, combination of jobs and subjection of the person to the gathering. Then again, modernity contains such values as mainstream quality, accomplishment, universalism, job explicitness and singularity. Transition from the previous to the last value framework, in this way establishes the procedure of modernization. Of the considerable number of values that contain modernity, rationality is regarded as of nonexclusive importance. Appropriately, Myrdal substance: In one sense the majority of the modernization ideals are contained in and got from the perfect of rationality and arranging (Myrdal, 1970). Modernization in this way suggests a procedure of reasonable examination of the value arrangement of a society with the end goal of cleansing it of its nonsensical components and incorporating into it an ever increasing number of sound components. As it were, it signifies a procedure of socio-social transformation along sane lines. Modernization hypothesis of the 1950s – 1970s was essentially a sub part of twentieth century evolutionary hypothesis. It incorporated the significant value judgment - the idea of advancement. Sahlins and Service (1960) characterized advance as progress on the whole around flexibility. Discussing cultures, they affirmed that the higher structures are again moderately free from environmental control, i.e., they adjust to more noteworthy environmental assortment than lower shapes. What's more, other evolutionist's additional, higher structures adjust their condition to address their issues. Nisbet (1969, p. 52) commented that the hypothesis of social development had been a legitimization for the power of the west, and that, beside empirical research the hypothesis had changed little since the 1800s. Much ongoing reasoning on modernization has given a progressively positive job to tradition and proposed an unpredictable relationship among tradition and modernity. In a cutting edge society, there is technological change. Also, innovation delivers new types of dangers and we are continually required to react and arrangement of interrelated changes inside contemporary social life, for example, moving work patterns, uplifted employment insecurity, declining influence of tradition and custom, disintegration of traditional family patterns and democratization of individual relations. What is specific about the cutting edge chance society is that the perils of hazard don't stay confined to one nation as it were. In the time of globalization, these dangers influence all nations and every single social class. They have worldwide, not simply close to home outcomes. So also, numerous types of manufactured hazard, for example, those concerning human wellbeing and the earth, cross national limits. The modernity, which is found in the present world, is called new modernity by Beck. It basically brings forth a hazard society. Beck has made his viewpoint on modernity exceptionally certain that new modernity has surrendered the old modernity and empowers the person to take his very own choices with no reference to his class or station thought. In the event that his self-evaluation of society is broken, he is probably going to surrender to chance. Presently, the vast majority of the hazard rises up out of the modernity in which he lives. The new modernity is not quite the same as the mechanical modernity. In this new modernity, social relations and foundations must be exclusively picked. Indeed, in this new present day society, social binds and association must be built up, kept up and restored by people themselves. The move from mechanical society to hazard society is a noteworthy break during the time spent transformation.

ROBERT FROST AS MODERN POET

Robert Frost is a famous modernist poet from New England. Frost used nontraditional approaches to writing poetry while retaining its more established conventions. Robert Frost's poetry falls in between the modernist and traditionalist camps. Frost, a contemporary poet, has left his poems a little bit gloomy while using every day, uncomplicated, conversational language. He wrote in the classical style of a poet by using meter and rhyme, and by drawing on the countryside's wealth of natural imagery. In his poetry, he uses Modernist techniques to remark on the darker side of life and the inherent doubt and uncertainty of daily existence. Frost intentionally leaves some of his poetry left to individual interpretation. The speaker is exhausted after a day of harvesting apples. The morning he peered through a sheet of ice raised from the surface of a water trough induced a state of drowsiness and dreaminess that has persisted to this day. Now he's exhausted and sleepy, but he's not sure whether it's just the typical The poem's central theme is the "pleasure of ulteriority," or the act of stating one thing while intending another. Even though the topic of "After Apple Picking" is apple picking, the reader gets the impression that the poem has some "ulteriority" because of the ladders that point "towards heaven still," the immense exhaustion of the speaker, and the reflections on harvest, winter, and unnatural sleep. The natural imagery (metaphors) employed in the poem are somewhat mundane and ordinary at first glance, but upon further inspection, the reader discovers something dark and foreboding, such as imminent danger or death. Like many other modernist poets, Frost leaves room for the reader to infer his own meaning from his work. Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" focuses on the moral ambiguity that contemporary man often encounters in his many spheres of activity. When a reader hears about a road that splits in the woods, immediate associations with concepts like life and free will are sparked. The narrator has two choices, each with an unknowable outcome. Frost argues that although we may have a degree of agency in the decisions we make, we often have no idea what we're getting into until after the fact. Here, Frost suggests that the narrator of "The Road not Taken" is representative of how alone people might feel when faced with difficult decision-making. Both pathways seemed equally unexplored, and the narrator admits he was at a loss as to which one to choose. Also, he wonders whether it's possible to change a course of action once a person has already traveled a significant distance along it, given that one path may have led to another and he'd be too far from the beginning to construct a new one. Frost's solution to the dilemma faced by the narrator in the poem is, in a sense, a universal dilemma faced by every man and woman, in keeping with the modernist belief in building and creating something new, different, and unique for the development of society and mankind as a whole. The reader is encouraged by Frost's sound and upbeat suggestions. Frost claims that the act of creating a poem is one of discovery. He had the opinion that neither poets nor lovers should ever take notes during their passionate encounters. Frost did not prewrite the poem or make any outlines. He immediately jotted it down as the idea struck him. Thus, the poem shows that man may make any choice without fear, as circumstances and surroundings will turn out to be friendly and advantageous for his advancement and evolution, encouraging him to learn more.

THE THEME ISOLATION AND ALIENATION

'Mending Wall' is a metaphorical poem with the topic of loneliness. The conversation between the two neighbors in Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" is a metaphor for two conflicting beliefs. The narrator

perspective, strives in vain to alter long-standing norms and dogmas. Young narrator thinks it's silly that the two guys are fixing the wall between their properties. The elder neighbor has inherited his father's insistence that a wall must be built between his property and that of the younger neighbor. The young narrator has tried many times and in many different ways to persuade his elderly neighbor to understand that tearing down the wall between them is unnecessary, but to no avail. However, the more senior neighbor counters with the advice his father gave him: "Good fences make good neighbors." His confidence in the veracity of that assertion is unshakeable. "an oldstone savage moving about in the darkness, armed and dangerous," the poet describes old farmer as. According to the narrator, the elderly farmer is stuck in the Stone Age because he refuses to adopt new ideas and methods. Frost's poem is a metaphor for the conflict between modern ideas and more traditional ones. The old farmer's rejection, apathy, and ignorance toward the young narrator's rational thinking and reasoning further separates them from one another as people.

CONCLUSION

Not many people think of Robert Frost when they think of the great Modernist poets. This is incorrect. His poetry attempts may not be as bold as those of someone like Ezra Pound in his Cantos, but Pound himself realized in those formative years in London that he was in good company with the likes of Pound. Of course, the classification of Frost is irrelevant. He is who he is, and what he has accomplished is among the greatest of the 20th century. He continues to have an impact in the twenty-first century, and contemporary poets may learn just as much from him as they can from any of his other famous contemporaries. Even though Robert Frost lives in a rural setting, this is not because he wants to avoid the harsh realities of the contemporary world; rather, it gives him a fresh perspective from which to evaluate and remark on those realities. Robert Frost has faith in a higher force or energy, as well as a code of ethics that differs from Christian morality. His poem "After Apple Picking" explains how the afterlife of man is very much like the hibernation of many animals. The poem "Mending Wall" argues that conventional values should be abandoned in favor of more progressive ones. The speaker in Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" waffles between two options, symbolizing contemporary man's difficulty in committing to one course of action over another. However, the poem closes on the hopeful note that the man is ultimately successful regardless of whatever path he chooses. Frost's poems we've discussed above advocate for and promote radical, contemporary ideas. York Times Book Review. 1959, Apr. 12, p.2. 2. Donald J. Greiner, Robert Frost: The Poet and His cities, American Literary Association, 1974. 3. Herold Bloom, Robert Frost: Modern Critical Views, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 4. John F. Lynen, The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost, Yale University Press. 5. Philip L. Gerber, Robert Frost, University of South Dakota, 1966. 6. Untermeyer, Louis, ―Robert Frost‖ in The New Era in American Poetry. Pp.15-40, New York: Holt, 1919. 7. Watts, Harold H., ―Robert Frost and the interrupted Dealogue,‖ American Literature Mar., pp. 69-87, 1955. 8. Beach, Joseph Warren, ―Robert Frost‖, Yale Review 43 (Winter 1954): pp. 204- 217. 9. Newdick, Robert S. ―Robert Frost‟s Other Harmony‖, Sewanee Review 48 (JulySeptember 1940): pp. 698-712. 10. Romy, Robert Frost as a Modern Poet, IJCRT | Volume 6, Issue 1 February 2018 11. Dr. Tarit Agrawal, Robert Frost: A Modern Poet with Modern Sensibility, The Literary Herald. Vol. 2, Issue 3 (December 2016) 12. Boyd, Natalie. ―Robert Frost Poetry Analysis: The Road Not Taken and Other poems‖. Levenson, Michael. A Cambridge Companion to Modernism. Cambridge University Press. UK. 2003.

Corresponding Author Rekha Goel*

Research Scholar, University Of Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan.