Two “individuals” who might be said to pursue individual
well-being in Robert Frost’s poem “Come In” are the bird and the man who listens to the
bird. The bird might be said to pursue individual well-being in spite of internal and
external demands in such ways as the
following:
- The bird continues to sing despite
the darkness that surrounds it. Rather than giving in to the “external demand” to cease
singing when night arrives, the bird chooses to continue
singing. - The bird sings despite (or perhaps because of)
another external challenge: apparently it has a less than ideal place to
perch. - The bird sings despite (or perhaps because of) an
internal demand: the need for sleep. - Since it is too
dark in the woods for the bird to fly and discover a better perch, the bird makes the
best of its present situation by singing. Perhaps it sings out of some discomfort and
annoyance with its present situation, but at least it sings, thus making the best out of
a less than pleasant circumstance:
readability="7">Too dark in the woods for a bird
By
sleight of wing
To better its perch for the night,
Though it still
could sing.Meanwhile, the
speaker of the poem might also be said to pursue individual well-being in spite of
internal and external demands in such ways as the
following:
- Although he imagines that the bird is
calling him to join the bird in the dark forest, he refuses to do so. Perhaps the dark
woods are associated symbolically with a kind of mental darkness, and perhaps the song
of the bird is also associated symbolically with a kind of lamentation, as the following
lines suggest:readability="5">Far in the pillared dark
Thrush music
went --
Almost like a call to come in
To the dark and
lament.Despite his
attraction to the song of the bird, however, the speaker resists the temptation to enter
the woods:But
no, I was out for stars;
I would not come
in.Do these lines mean that
he symbolically chooses light over darkness, life over death, the pursuit of happiness
over a giving-in to sadness? In any case, the speaker chooses his own well-being in
spite of being attracted (perhaps even tempted) by the dark woods and the sound of
lamentation.
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