One thought on “17—Gathering-Leaves—Annotated

  1. How is Frost presenting labour in this poem?

    In Robert Frost’s poem gathering leaves, the narrator uses simile, repetition and sensory imagery to portray the pointless aspect of labour as well as nature’s power over humans.

    To begin with, let’s look at the third and fourth line ; “And bags full of leaves, are light as balloons” that show a simile as the bags full of leaves are compared to balloons. This simile illustrates the pointlessness of gathering leaves, it is unsatisfying because the person gathering leaves does not get a concrete result of her work except a light bag of leaves which is insignificant and creates an impression of emptiness as well as false productivity. Moreover, the narrator keeps using simile in the second stanza ; “Of rustling all day, Like rabbit and deer Running away”, here once again the narrator portrays an unsatisfying image of labour through simile as he seems to envy animals that are “running away” from any responsibility, they are not tied up to work like humans are. This shows that labour comes with human condition and that it is a fatality no one can escape from. In the last three stanzas, the speaker uses repetition such as in lines 13-14 and 22 ; “I may load and unload”, “again and again”, “But a crop is crop” to illustrate the repetitive rhythm of work, these repetitions seem to mimic the routine one is enrolled in when working. The following repetition “But a crop is a crop” questions the real purpose of harvesting and shows the power nature has upon humans in the end. Indeed, in this poem, it seems that nature chooses for humans and controls them. Labour is not an activity humans agreed to have, it was imposed by nature. Finally, the narrator makes great use of sensory imagery such as in line 5 ; “I make a great noise of rustling all day”, this quote accurately expresses the fact that the only final product he gets from his work is noise which is irrelevant and intensifies the impression of working with no purpose and leads to a feeling of emptiness. “Flowing over my arms” highlights the desperate need of humans to have control over their work but unfortunately failing. The leaves that flow over the narrator’s arms symbolize his attempt to find the unattainable purpose in his labour.

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