“Birches,” written in 1916 is a decorative free verse poem which could be comparable to a monologue due to the interruption and use of the first person throughout, “but I was going to say.” The voice of the narration is seemingly that of Robert Frost himself and he employs subtle description in order to emphasise his admiration for the land, in particular the, “Birches,” which are described as beautiful through all seasons. Frost appears to recall how during his childhood birch trees became a natural playground for him, something he felt compelled to conquer, “subdued his father’s trees.” However in truth Frost spent his childhood in the city and it wasn’t until later that he grasped an association with rural life when he dropped out of Harvard University and instead bought a farm in New Hampshire. This may mean that the boy in his poem is not him at all but simply an imagined boy, “too far away from town to learn baseball.” Frost possibly realised what he had missed as a child when he moved to England and was first inspired to write about the countryside he had loved in America. Perhaps he wished that he too could have spent his childhood amongst the trees like the boy he describes as oppose to having memories of urban California. He talks of the trees as ancient friends and dreams about them eventually forming his personal passage to heaven, “and climb black branches up a snow white branch, towards heaven.”
Likewise TS Eliot was also inspired by the beauty of New Hampshire as the first poem from the set, “Landscapes,” is entitled, “New Hampshire.” His poem does not hold reference to any of the known tragic events of his life such as the divorce from his wife whom suffered a mental illness until her death and so we can depict that, “New Hampshire,” reminds him of being young and free, a place where he could play amongst apple trees, “Children’s voices in the Orchard.” He too expresses the view that New Hampshire is an ideal environment for children, however...