By: Jessica Raygoza, Neiven Haddad & Ana Canales
Background Published in Appeared in Frost’s third book, Mountain Interval in Frost chose the title to show that he sees that there has to be a choice made between the two.
Title Prediction The poem is about breaking a bond that you don't believe in so that you can be free and do what you believe is best for yourself.
Theme Love will trap you in reality while thought will allow you the freedom to change and learn from past experiences.
Summary The speaker speaks of Love as never willing to take risks and as preferring to stay rooted in reality. On the other hand, Though is described as being fearless and willing to explore. While Love clings and settles for less, Thought “flies through the sky” and sees life as being full of endless possibilities. At the end, Love is actually better because it has everything it needs to be happy while what Thought desires is out of its reach.
Connotation Figurative Language: - "Love has earth to which she clings“ line 1 (Love is feminine) - "But thought has shaken his ankles free” line 10 (Thought is Masculine) Alliteration: - "Wall within wall" line 3 Personification - “world’s embrace” line 8 Diction: -"Love has earth to which she clings” line 1 - "Thought has a pair of dauntless wings" line 5 -" With straining in the worlds embrace" line 8 -"But thought has shaken his ankles free" line 10 - "love by being thrall" line 17
More Connotations Imagery: - "With hills and circling arms about Wall within wall to shut fear out" lines 2-3 -"On snow and sand and turf, I see Where love has left a printed trace" lines 6-7 -"But Thought has shaken his ankles free" line 10 -"And sits in Sirius' disc all night" line 12 - "With smell of burning on every plume" line 14 Allusion: -"And sits in Sirius' disc all night" line 12 (the night sky’s brightest star) Irony: -Love, which is seen as a good thing, is portrayed as being negative.
Shift In line 10 the tone goes from being timid to brave.
Criticism 1:The Poetry of Robert Frost: An Analysis -Love and thought are presented as opposites in the poem "Bond and Free“ ("Love" as being in 'Bond' and "Thought" as being 'Free' are presented in contrast. ) * our new title perspective once we read the poem* -Love is trapped and thrall, it likes to stand still, on the earth, while thought on the other hand is free and likes to explore far up into the sky and the stars. This explains why they are opposites. (Love is presented as being held to earth, restricted to the physical, no more than a thrall.; To balance the poem, the author must present something that is free, something not held, restricted, a thrall. He settles on thought. ) -The reason love and thought are seen as opposites is because of freedom, and in this case thought is free and love is not. (freedom is necessary to Thought, but not to Love.)
Criticism 2:The Robert Frost Encyclopedia -Here it is being explained that Love likes to cling and stay on earth and thought likes to be free and go up to the sky and explore new things. (it concerns the relationship between the physical/emotional and artistic/intellectual dimensions of life, associating the former(identified here as “Love”) with earth and the latter (”Thought”) with heaven. -Thought in the poem is related to Greek Methodology, but in the poem it is unclear because it is mentioned as "Sirius Disc" on line 12. They are compared because just like Icarus, thought also isn't afraid of going out into the world and exploring into the unknown. (Thought, on the other hand, is fearless and soars toward the unknown; Frost invokes the mythological figure of Icarus, son of Daedalus, who, despite his father’s warning, soared too high, too close to the sun, melted his wax wings, and fell to his death in the sea) -Love can be seen as feminine because they were seen more as emotional. Thought can be seen as masculine because men were seen more as thinkers. (Frost makes the domesticated and bound “Love” feminine and the liberated, daring “Thought” masculine in keeping with the gender stereotypes of his day and with the general representation of male Randleman throughout his poetry.)