Imagine yourself alone in a cold dark place, a place where there is nohope of anyone helping you, a place where you are without a map or any sense ofdirection and a place where there is no option of going back but to face thatlonely dull landscape. Looks frightening, huh? That’s exactly what Robert Frostis describing in his poem “Desert Places”. Usually readers would confuse thistopic with some hot, dry place with no water around and, to be honest, that’swhat I initially thought this poem would be about. The reason I chose thispoem was because I thought this would be an ordinary desert and I would be ableto relate my experiences with the writer’s experience, as I have been to DesertSafari a few times. But, as I started reading this poem, it had a serious andhelpless tone throughout the poem which made me want to understand it in depthand get the message that Frost is trying to give. In the first stanza, Frost writes, “Snowfalling and night falling fast, oh, fast/In a field I looked into goingpast/And the ground almost covered smooth in snow/But a few weeds and stubble showinglast.” (1-4).
We usually picture snow with beautiful landscapes but in thispoem Frost mentions snow as if it was a white cold sheet covering the naturewhich represents loneliness. Frost has connected night with snow here so, bythis black and white combination he is giving us an idea of winter landscapeand how dark, dull, quiet and lonely night this is for him. Words “oh, fast”(1) here tells us how helpless he was with this whole idea of time running fastand within a glimpse that night became the past. That’s how fast time wasrunning for him and he couldn’t do anything about it. Then Frost picks out”Weeds and stubble” (4) which shows the sign of discomfort for him as hedescribes this scene.
All the hard work done by the farmers throughout the yearis buried under the snow. This also reflects the increasing level of isolationfor the speaker. Picturing myself in that quiet place alone with no excitement,where all I could see are a few remaining weeds and stubbles, suffocates me todeath.
