Also Read
The Vantage Point
If tires of trees I seek again mankind,
Well I know where to hie me--in the dawn,
To a slope where the cattle keep the lawn.
There amid loggin juniper reclined,
Myself unseen, I see in white defined
Far off the homes of men, and farther still,
The graves of men on an opposing hill,
Living or dead, whichever are to mind.
And if by noon I have too much of these,
I have but to turn on my arm, and lo,
The sun-burned hillside sets my face aglow,
My breathing shakes the bluet like a breeze,
I smell the earth, I smell the bruisèd plant,
I look into the crater of the ant.
 |
| The Vantage Point |
Introduction:
The Vantage Point by Robert Frost is a sonnet from A Boy's Will contains a series of Nature pictures and, though not philosophical or moralistic, makes us aware of things of which we are generally oblivious.
Summary:
The poet knows of a place from where he can see the far-off homes and graves of men. From this vantage point he can also see, just by turning on his arm, sights of nature-cattle, sun-burned nil-side, "bruised plant" and "the crater of the ant". These are ordinary, familiar country sights. The poet "is equally content with contemplating live men, dead men, or ants, and none to the three prompts him to Ideological speculation".
Critical Analysis:
There is some personal revelation in the poem, but of an unobtrusive kind. The poet's interest in both the living and the dead communicates itself to us, calling up associations of energy, vitality and action of life contrasted with the sorrow and stillness of death.