Frost Joins Form and Meaning in Into My Own

Rhyme and Meter and Form Work Together to Enhance Reading Enjoyment

Jul 12, 2009

Robert Frost's mastery of form to enhance meaning comes through clearly in "Into My Own." Meter and rhyme provide emphasis that gives the reader better understanding.

As stated in a previous article that gave an overview of “Into My Own,” Robert Frost had mastered many aspects of poetic technique early in his career. Choosing to write in form, he declined to join the imagist and modernist movements. He stepped back in time and found a way to use formal poetry to his advantage, almost always with modern language.

Stanzaic Structure of “Into My Own”

For this poem, Frost chose a sonnet form: fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, divided into four quatrains and a closing couplet. The poem deviates from normal sonnet practice only in the using of rhyming couplets in lieu of one of the normal interlocking rhyme schemes.

Each quatrain covers a different part of the story. The first is the narrator’s musing about life beyond where he is at that moment, and how he wants to experience something more than he has. The second tells of how the narrator might achieve his aims, and how he expects to react to what he finds when he branches out. The third talks mainly about those loved ones he will leave behind, and how they will react. The closing couplet provides a neat summary and tells one last piece of information about the narrator.

Thus, the form of the poem chosen by Frost is a perfect complement to the meaning his words give.

Meter Provides Emphasis of Certain Words in “Into My Own”

The iambic pentameter pattern in “Into My Own” is not so regular that it becomes sing-songy like a children’s poem. Rather, Frost weaves in subtle changes from normal meter, keeping the overall pattern but requiring the reader to pay attention. The poem begins with a line in irregular meter: “One of my wishes…” Iambic meter would have the second syllable stressed: of. But natural speech puts the emphasis on one. Thus the word “One” is given an extra emphasis beyond which it would have as the first word in the line. Frost wanted us to understand that this wish is only one of those the narrator has.

The second half of the line also has an irregularity in the meter: “…is that those dark trees.” The last three syllables are all stressed, following two unstressed syllables: “of those.” Applying scansion to the entire line gives meter as:

“Is” takes a little bit of stress, just enough to make the line appear mostly iambic. Although these variations occur in the first line, the reader will not stumble, nor be tempted to read in an unnatural way. This is the mark of excellent poetic craftsmanship: the meter emphasized the sense.

The same is true for line 7: “fearless of ever finding open land”. The word “fearless” is irregular metrically; thus it is doubly emphasized as the first word in the line and as calling attention to itself. Frost wants the reader to know that the narrator is fearless of what he may find when he escapes into the dark forest of the world.

The same type of emphasis from irregular meter also happens in line 4, where “some day” receives extra emphasis due to the irregular meter. When will this escape happen? The best the narrator can say is an emphasized some day.

Rhyme Done Naturally by Frost

The rhymes in “Into My Own” are obvious, but not unnatural. As the lines are read, it seems as if the words are chosen for meaning, and the reader realizes they also rhyme, and the reading delight is enhanced. The first two lines bear this out with the “trees-breeze” rhyme. Breeze is the perfect word in this location. The wind that fails to move the trees is not a wind or a gust or a gale or a mild wind or a strong wind. It is a breeze, a word with which most readers will relate.

In the same way, the “back-track” rhyme of lines nine and ten appears so natural that the reader will likely believe they were chosen for meaning only, and not for the rhyme. The closing couplet, with its “knew-true” rhyme is a true heroic couplet in the Shakespearean sonnet sense. These are not unusual words; yet together they appear natural, and the word true, coming at the end as it does, is emphasized. This little bit of character has been left to the end of the poem, allowing the reader to feel each line meant something.

The merging of formal poetic elements—rhyme, meter, and stanziac pattern—with the meaning the poet wanted to express, are particularly well done by Frost. Nothing is unnatural save what the poet wanted to emphasize.

The copyright of the article Frost Joins Form and Meaning in Into My Own in American Poetry is owned by David Todd. Permission to republish Frost Joins Form and Meaning in Into My Own in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.