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In the poem Birches the motion of swinging is the overall theme. He likes to imagine that a boy in signing on the tress, "I like to think some boy's been swinging them" (Frost, line 3). When in fact he actually knows that no boy has been swinging. In actuality the tree has been bent from the ice storms. But Frost much rather prefers the story of the boy swinging from tree to tree. The poem is written in a Blank Verse style meaning, it has no rhyme but does have iambic pentameter. This means it consists of lines of five feet, each foot being iambic, meaning two syllables long, one unstressed followed by a stressed syllable. In Historical Context
it is perhaps ironic that Birches is set in such a peaceful setting"You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen" (Frost, line 13) when WW1 was going on all around them.  However, it is notable that there are many violent acts either shown or implied in the poem and that the language of conquest is conspicuous in the middle section of the poem.

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The poem alone has many different themes, but the most prominent being empowerment, society, and class. Empowerment is shown through Maya’s growth throughout the poem. Society and class is shown when the author talks about how money can’t buy happiness. “There are some millionaires With money they can’t use” (Angelou, stanza 3). Angelou used a call and response structure. Call and response structure is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience and is shown mainly by punctuation; in African cultures it’s a pervasive pattern. This is shown in the poem by, “The race of man is suffering” (Angelou, stanza 5). By talking about man as an entire race is relates to the audience, making it persuasive. The meaning of the poem is about life and its meaning. The historical context of the poem relates to the suffering of the black community throughout this time frame.

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Jameliz Smith
Gabe Thomas

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Literary Term Examples

Metaphor- "I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back" (Frost, line 38). The metaphor would be the poet leaving earth and then coming back again, all by swinging a birch tree.

Symbolism- "I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay" (Frost, line 3). The boy the author is referring to is a symbol of youth. The author also uses the tree the boy is swinging on as a symbol of life and death.

Alliteration- "Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells" (Frost, line 10). This quote shows examples of alliteration by the repetition of the constant "s" or "sh" sound.

Simile- "Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair" (Frost, line 18). This is a smilie because the author compare the leaves to girls' hair by using the word "like". He compares the two because they have the same dragging/ hanging effect.

Personification- "But I was going to say when Truth broke in With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm" (Frost, line 21). Personification is shown here when the author refers to "Truth" as a "her". The word truth is also giving human characteristics because it is capitalized, as if it was a name.

Point of View- "When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees" (Frost, line 1). The point of view is shown in this quote when the author states "I"- this shows that the poem is in the author's point of view.

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Literary Term Examples

Simile- "Their wives run round like banshees" (Angelou, stanza 1). The author is using the word "like" to compare wives to banshees. A banshee is a female spirit whose wailing warns of an impending death in a house. The author is saying that these wives are basically dead- just because they have money does not mean they are happy.

Symbolism- "There are some millionaires With money they can’t use" (Angelou, stanza 3). The author is using money as a symbol for being alone and unhappy. The reader can infer this because the money they can't use is the money they cannot use to buy happiness.

Imagery- "Storm clouds are gathering The wind is gonna blow" (Angelou, stanza 5). The author uses words like "stormy clouds" and "wind" to describe the setting to the reader. The clouds gathering can also symbolize the doom of humanity because people feel they can be alone even though they cannot.

Alliteration-  "Alone, all alone" (Angelou, stanza 2). Alliteration is shown in the repetition of the constant "a" sound.

Rhyme- "With money they can’t use Their wives run round like banshees Their children sing the blues"(Angelou, stanza 3). The author uses an a b rhyme scheme by rhyming words after skipping lines- like "use" and "blues".

Point of View- "I came up with one thing And I don’t believe I’m wrong" (Angelou, stanza 1). The point of view is shown in this quote when the author states "I" and "I'm"- this shows the poem is written in the author's point of view.

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Literary Terms

Metaphor- Is a comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as".

Symbolism- Person, place, object or activity that stands for something beyond itself.

Alliteration- The repetition of initial consonant sounds of several words in a group.

Simile- A figure of speech that compares two things that are basically unlike yet have something in common with the use of "like" or "as".

Personification- Is when a nonhuman object is given human characteristics

Point of View- Is the perspective from which a story is told.

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Literary Terms

Simile- A figure of speech that compares two things that are basically unlike yet have something in common with the use of "like" or "as".

Symbolism- Person, place, object or activity that stands for something beyond itself.

Imagery- Is the descriptive language used in literature to recreate sensory experiences relating to sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell.

Alliteration- The repetition of initial consonant sounds of several words in a group.

Rhyme- Words rhyme when the sounds of their accented vowels and all succeeding sounds are identical.

Point of View- Is the perspective from which the story is told.

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Biography
Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in  the city of San Francisco, where his father and his mother had moved from Pennsylvania shortly after marrying. After the death of his father from tuberculosis when Frost was eleven years old, he moved with his mother and sister to Lawrence, Massachusetts. He became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1892, and later at Harvard University in Boston, though he never earned a formal college degree. His first published poem, “My Butterfly," on November 8, 1894. In 1895, Frost married and shared a great love with Elinor Miriam White until her death in 1938. The couple moved to England in 1912. This was after living in New Hampshire. When Frost returned to the US in 1915, he published two full-length collections, A Boy’s Will and North of Boston. Frost was a consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress from 1958 to 1959. Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont, and died in Boston on January 29, 1963.

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Biography

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In 1959 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. requested Angelou become the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.From 1961 to 1962 she was the editorial manager of The Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt, the main English-dialect news week by week in the Middle East, and from 1964 to 1966 she was highlight proofreader of the African Review in Accra, Ghana. She came back to the US in 1974 and was designated by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. Angelou wrote and performed a sonnet, "On The Pulse of the Morning," at the initiation for President Bill Clinton. In 2000, she got the National Medal of Arts, and in 2010 she was granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. She was the first black woman director in Hollywood. Angelou died on May 28, 2014, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1982.

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Frost, Robert. "Birches." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

Angelou, Maya. "Alone." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 02 May 2015. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"Maya Angelou." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 04 Apr. 2017. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"Robert Frost." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 17 May 2016. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"Birches Historical Context." BookRags. BookRags, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

Ingram, Janaye. "Column: The 400-year Struggle for Black Equality Doesn't End with #blacklivesmatter." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

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Robert Frost

When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,

I like to think some boy's been swinging them.

But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay

As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them

Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning

After a rain. They click upon themselves

As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored

As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.

Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells

Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away

You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,

And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed

So low for long, they never right themselves:

You may see their trunks arching in the woods

Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground

Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair

Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.

But I was going to say when Truth broke in

With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm

I should prefer to have some boy bend them

As he went out and in to fetch the cows—

Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,

Whose only play was what he found himself,

Summer or winter, and could play alone.

One by one he subdued his father's trees

By riding them down over and over again

Until he took the stiffness out of them,

And not one but hung limp, not one was left

For him to conquer. He learned all there was

To learn about not launching out too soon

And so not carrying the tree away

Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise

To the top branches, climbing carefully

With the same pains you use to fill a cup

Up to the brim, and even above the brim.

Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,

Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

And so I dream of going back to be.

It's when I'm weary of considerations,

And life is too much like a pathless wood

Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs

Broken across it, and one eye is weeping

From a twig's having lashed across it open.

I'd like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over.

May no fate willfully misunderstand me

And half grant what I wish and snatch me away

Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:

I don't know where it's likely to go better.

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

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Maya Angelou

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can’t use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They’ve got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
‘Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.