“On A Tree Fallen Across the Road” by Robert Frost, analysis at bottom.
The tree the tempest with a crash of wood
Throws down in front of us is not bar
Our passage to our journey’s end for good,
But just to ask us who we think we are
Insisting always on our own way so.
She likes to halt us in our runner tracks,
And make us get down in a foot of snow
Debating what to do without an axe.
And yet she knows obstruction is in vain:
We will not be put off the final goal
We have it hidden in us to attain,
Not though we have to seize earth by the pole
And, tired of aimless circling in one place,
Steer straight off after something into space.
Robert Frost
This poem outlines descriptively three stages to maturity and one of the treasures of life. It starts with a circumstantial whirlwind, something out of your control. This is the fallen tree in lines 1-8. These circumstances humble us (Line 7), makes us pause our running of life (Line 6), and admit we can’t control everything by brute force or even will and choice (Line 8). The tree won’t go away because we wish.
Stage two is when we seize what’s in front of us, (Lines 9-12). Carpe diem (seize the day) is a very popular philosophy in poetry. But this poem made me see something I never have before. Seizing what’s in front of you is different from making your day count (at least in this poem). Seizing what’s in front of you means gratefulness. It means you count the little blessings and say, “Maybe I don’t have the best life, but I’ve got a good one.” I have found this stage to be both the hardest and most exciting stage when pursuing a new goal. Take weight loss for example. This is the part where you see yourself toned in the mirror, but still haven’t hit goal weight.
On a grand scale, we live in this stage of our lives. The transition stage between life and death. Creation and eternity. That’s why I appreciate goals. Small or big, they give us moments to celebrate. To have a taste of completion, although the final completion has not yet arrived. Love also gives a taste of completion.
1 Corinthian 13: 12 Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
This verse is hidden within the chapter of the bible that expressly lines out the characteristics of true love. It shows true love, the love of God, is a sense of completion. Of being “fully known.” Seizing the day means being grateful for the little or sample completion.
Stage 3 is expressed in the last two lines and in line 10-11. This is where you go beyond seizing the day into making the day. As the famous adage goes, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he’ll never go hungry.” The fact is process teaches us to “fish”. To make the day. True strength is waking up and not saying, “oh this is a bad day,” or “oh what will this day be like,” but telling the day what’s what. Telling it that it will be good. Or bad. Because you can do either one. It’s your choice. But that is what is “hidden within us to attain.” That is why we go through this process which, though I tried to map it out, never looks the same for each person.
I suppose this hit me hard because I just recently, without realizing it, went through this process.
Then, I realized it wasn’t a process at all, but the tools to contentment.
You see, I set a goal for myself back in November (the goal isn’t important), and each month brought me a little closer to it. When each stage I listed ended, I grew more frustrated, hopeless, and angry. I thought the end of a stage meant the end of the process. That I should have my goal. I was done. Finished. I could check it all off. But something obstructed my path, and I questioned everything. Until I saw this. Until I realized the process wasn’t finished.
God is still working on me. He draws out the “hidden” thing. For me and for each of us, that means the skills, patience, perseverance, courage, and strength to create the dream life every day. Happiness is not found in circumstance, but neither is it found in a flippant “I will be happy today,” statement that life crushes in two minutes. Certainly there must be something we’re missing. It’s the tools of admitting 1) you’re not in control, 2) seizing with gratefulness what’s in front of you, and 3) creating the life you’re passionate about. These are hidden within us. When we walk in this, God walks with us, and we act in His Image. He is a Creator and Builder, and so are we.
For me and for each of us, that means the skills, patience, perseverance, courage, and strength to create the dream life every day.
A. Faith.
