Through the entire Silken Tent, Robert Frost employs a prolonged metaphor in comparing women to a sensitive tent between nature. This device explores the idea of freedom held by a woman in 1940s America, nevertheless also confronts the limitations and required family and society.
Ice explores the importance of environment, focusing on moments of characteristics to evoke connotations of your ethereal and light atmosphere adjacent the camping tent: ‘She is just as in a field a silken tent By midday each time a sunny summer breeze¦'[1] The ‘silken tent’ suggests gentleness and sensuality, which are juxtaposed against the really mundane environment: ‘a field’, presenting a combination of practicality and openness. Time of time is also significant: ‘Midday’, an occasion when the sunlight would be highest in the sky. The natural way, this time-frame bestows a warm and comforting sense on not merely the character nevertheless the reader likewise. Additionally , the alliteration of ‘sunny summer’ accentuates a song-like rhythm that plays a part in the light ambiance, a mood continued in ‘sureness in the soul’. The theme of site brings forwards a further concept as to the position of women in society: ‘And its supporting central planks pole, That is certainly its pinnacle to heavenward'[2] The suggestion of a ‘pinnacle to heavenward’ presents the idea that a woman has an ethereal, practically angel-like position, the whole of Frost’s description is targeted on positive aspects of ladies, perhaps displaying the idealistic image contemporary society has. As well, such explanations can even more suggest that whilst a woman might not necessarily be reaching to God, females are expected to seek guidance by an authoritative figure, probably a daddy or spouse. Frost’s use of natural symbolism continues: ‘central cedar pole’ to claim that this female is strong-minded or in a more literal feeling could support the limbs of contemporary society as a forest trunk would support their boughs.
A sense of liberty informs the entire poem, since reflected inside the structure and form: ‘But strictly placed by non-e, is loosely bound By countless silken ties of love and believed. ‘[1] The lack of restraint: ‘strictly held simply by non-e ‘ suggests that this kind of entity can not be fully controlled in marital life or lifestyle, rather, this kind of entity continues to be a free nature and in turn chooses to give ‘love and thought’ to others. The adverb ‘loosely’ proposes that although connections restrain her, they are a gentle reminder and possess no restricted element. This freedom is definitely reflected inside the enjambment plus the lack of complete stops, providing unending, cost-free movement to the poem. Fictional scholar Mordecai Marcus has argued that ‘The tautening represents tensions in relationships, and the slightness of the bondage shows that the girl tender dutifulness responds never to compulsion but for loving requirement. ‘[2] This is seen throughout the ending, when the slight not enough freedom turns into apparent: ‘bondage’ evokes pictures of imprisonment and slavery, even though the extremity is reduced through the épithète ‘slight’. Additionally , the repetition of ‘silken ties’ gives the sonnet a circular composition, reflecting that a woman’s responsibilities are never above. However , the role of a woman is still portrayed efficiently through the metaphysical aspect ‘ties of love and thought’, suggesting the features a woman can easily bestow in others and her links to family, a spouse, or even ‘To everything upon earth’. Furthermore, the feeling of freedom is amplified by the basic sequence of rhyming couplet that make up the rhyme scheme, just as the silken connections are draped around the girl, The Silken Tent can be tied together with this soft rhyme. Flexibility is likewise a central theme in Frost’s poem Birches: ‘I’d like to move away from earth for a while.. And ascend black divisions up a snow-white trunk area Toward heaven'[3] The longing for perhaps religious satisfaction or to a number of power is echoed in The Silky Tent, as the urge to obtain true flexibility while together being linked to reality on earth.
While Frost critic Robert Faggen comments: ‘”The Silken Tent” and “All Revelation” happen to be impersonal pronouncements that suggest universal or perhaps mythic, revelatory disclosures. ‘[1] This can be viewed through the unconformity Frost reveals us with over the exact identification with the woman. He outlines her duties for the world rather than her physical aspects, perhaps this is purposeful, to suggest a common idea rather than a specific individual. While the subject of the poem is lifeless, the nature of the tent delivers information about the woman: ‘¦all their ropes relent, So that in guys that gently sways at ease'[2] Her identity is generalized to simply ‘She’, this labeled leaves area for model as to whom this girl could be and is also therefore evidently relevant to many people, helping to establish an emotional connection between the audience and the poet. The pun on ‘guys’ presents the ‘guise’ this kind of woman can be under through the tent metaphor, as well as linking the physical aspects of a tent to the masculine influence on a women’s life. However , even though very gentle misogyny is present, the sense that woman may have obligations but will under no circumstances be completely controlled is reflected throughout the vocabulary: ‘relents’ and ‘gently sways for ease’. The subject’s even more promiscuous side is shown through pathetic fallacy: ‘In the capriciousness of summer air Is of the smallest bondage produced aware. ‘[3] Through the noun ‘capriciousness’, Ice suggests sudden impulsiveness and a sense of wildness, of freedom. It is only when this wildness needs to be curbed that vices are ‘made aware’, a reminder that a classic womans spirit must be kept restricted if she is to fulfill her duties.
With The Silky Tent, Ice presents his appreciation for ladies through the classic sonnet type. He focuses, just as William Carlos Williams often really does, very closely on one image to present the human and the metaphysical relationships a woman has not only with those about her although also with the entire world.
