Could anyone please explain the lines of the poem A Dream Pang by Robert Frost?

Question

I have been reading the poem over and over again, and I cannot understand what it is saying. I have searched for interpretations, but to no avail.

Could someone please explain to me each line of the poem?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

A Dream Pang By Robert Frost:



I had withdrawn in forest, and my song

Was swallowed up in leaves that blew alway;

And to the forest edge you came one day

(This was my dream) and looked and pondered long,

But did not enter, though the wish was strong:

You shook your pensive head as who should say,

‘I dare not—too far in his footsteps stray—

He must seek me would he undo the wrong.



Not far, but near, I stood and saw it all

Behind low boughs the trees let down outside;

And the sweet pang it cost me not to call

And tell you that I saw does still abide.

But ’tis not true that thus I dwelt aloof,

For the wood wakes, and you are here for proof.



I think this means that he sees his most wild dream in a distance but comes to reality and says that he could never get it. Notice he says, "my song was swallowed up in leaves that blew alway..." He is saying that his dream that he has dreamt, has been blown away with everyone esle's dreams that could never be achieved...and it happens to be in the woods/forest.



In the qoute, " But did not enter, though the wish was strong:

You shook your pensive head as who should say,

‘I dare not—too far in his footsteps stray—

He must seek me would he undo the wrong."



He basically says that, though my wish/dream was strong, i can not recieve it. The dream keeper said no to the author.....but the author is convined that the mysterious dream keeper must do what is wrong to give the author what he wants......when really yhe author knows deep down inside that he can't have it(the dream/wish).



I hope you understand what i am saying. That's what i think the poem means.

Answer 2

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RE:

Could anyone please explain the lines of the poem A Dream Pang by Robert Frost?

I have been reading the poem over and over again, and I cannot understand what it is saying. I have searched for interpretations, but to no avail.



Could someone please explain to me each line of the poem?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 3

Typical Frost. The poem means just what it says; the speaker is thinking about how the end of the world will come about. He seems to use "fire" and "ice" to suggest different aspects of human emotion--he equates fire with passion, ice with hate. So the question is--will the world come to an end in a great upsurge of human passion going out of control, or will human hatred freeze us out. The last line ends with a typical Frost understatement. I think he does that sort of thing to evoke feelings of terror or bleakness in the reader. Frankly, it leaves me cold (no pun intended), but some people seem to love Frost for that stuff. No need to decode this one then. Surely you're familiar with metaphor in song writing. "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor comes to mind, and there are plenty of other examples.

Answer 4

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