18 pages • 36 minutes read
Robert FrostOctober
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1913A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
Frost uses a traditional leaning yet unique brand of form and meter. “October” is written in a single stanza punctuated by distinct sentences within the stanza block. While the poem is presented in only a single stanza, each sentence serves to suggest a stanza, as each sentence introduces its own idea. The lines within Frost’s poem “October” range from eight to nine beats per line, with only the line “Slow, slow!” (Line 17) falling outside of that convention.
Frost’s form and meter make a clear stylistic nod to something he felt was integral to his poetry. He believed poems should sound conversational in the way natural speech is, and his adherence to a steady meter reflect this desire. The verse within the poem is formal in that it provides a distinct rhyme scheme yet does not adhere to any specific mode or traditionally understood form of verse. Typical to other Frost poems, “October” has a unique rhyme scheme determined not by a traditional mode, but by Frost’s own ear.
Refrain
Refrain is a literary device found in both traditional and contemporary forms of poetry, though in "October," it is used in a lyrical, exaggerated fashion that harkens to the device’s roots. Frost employs refrain to create a sense of urgency, using it to address the addressee (October) and additionally to underscore moments of importance for the reader. In “October,” Frost leans on this device, providing two distinctive refrains: one at the opening and one at the close of the poem.
Traditionally, a refrain is positioned at the end of a stanza or line, though Frost has innovated this and positioned his refrains at the beginning of his lines, even opening the poem with a refrain. Alice Notley is another poet who does this, most notably in her poem “At Night the States” (a eulogy for her late husband, poet, Ted Berrigan). The refrain and, to a greater degree lyric poetry, have much in common with music. Most songs include a chorus, which functions in music much the same way a refrain functions in a poem—to add emphasis and create a sense of rhythm.
In poetry, a refrain differs from basic repetition. Refrains are typically composed of groups of words, whereas repetition is more often a single word, sound, or sentiment repeated within a poem. Since Frost could be considered a lyric poet, his use of the refrain is no surprise and helps underscore the greater attributes of his particular brand of poetics.
Pastoral
The pastoral form allows for investigation into deeper philosophical concepts through the buffer of nature. Frost’s poem uses the pastoral form in exactly this way, and his own life provides deeper insight as to why he might have chosen this form for this particular poem. For a number of years, Frost worked on or adjacent to a farm and, as a result, he developed and intimate relationship to the New England landscape. It seems fitting, then, that Frost would choose the pastoral form to explore the issue of mortality.
Traits hallmark to pastorals include a single narrator engaged with nature in some way, removal from society/urban life, farmers or shepherds, religious allegory, and/or philosophical inquiry. The pastoral form originated in Greece with the poet Hesiod, who was writing between 750 and 650 BCE; over time, the form has evolved to include larger critiques of the genre.
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By Robert Frost
