"Desert Places" is a poem by Robert Frost. It was originally written in 1933 and appeared in ''

The American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...

'' in April 1934, before being collected in Frost's 1936 book '' A Further Range''. The book was awarded the

Pulitzer Prize in 1937 The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1937. Journalism awards Letters and Drama Awards * Novel: ** ''Gone with the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell ( Macmillan). *Drama: ** '' You Can't Take It with You'' by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman ( F ...

Background

Frost composed the poem in the winter of 1933 during bouts of illness and depression. It is one of the poems Frost claims to have written "without fumbling a sentence."

Analysis

Themes and tone

The poem is considered one of Frost's darker and more somber poems, focusing on the terrifying nature of existence. Additional themes are ones of loneliness, fear, and despair. The poem opens with the speaker passing by an empty field during a snowstorm around dusk. As the field is covered with snow, the speaker contemplates the blankness and the whiteness of the snow, a snow "with no expression, nothing to express." The speaker then turns his contemplation to the night sky "with their empty spaces / Between stars." The poem shares a similar landscape to Frost's poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." The Irish poet

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

notes in his essay "Above the Brim" that the two poems also share a similar rhyme scheme. Heaney also notes that the quick alliteration in the first two lines propel the poem forward.

Critical interpretation

Critics differ on whether or not the poem expresses an argument for faith and God or an argument for skepticism.

Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...

and

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...

, in their book '' Understanding Poetry'', interpret the poem to speak on behalf of faith and belief. Other critics believe the poem embodies the skepticism evident within the New England tradition of

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

. Still others view the poem as more modern and ironic in its approach, comparing the poem to the tradition of

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

. Most critics agree, however, that Frost establishes a mirroring between the exterior landscape and the interior landscape of the speaker. More recent critics have argued that the poem expresses Frost's lack of faith in his own creative abilities, noting that the lonely and barren landscape mirrors the barrenness of creativity, inspiration, and imagination. Critic Judith Oster, for example, correlates the line "nothing to express" with Frost's own fear of a loss of creative output.

Notes

{{Robert Frost 1934 poems English-language poems Modernist poems Poetry by Robert Frost Works originally published in American magazines Works originally published in literary magazines