18 pages • 36 minutes read
Robert FrostThe Gift Outright
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1941A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
Frost notes the meter when he calls his poem a history of the United States in “blank verse.” Blank verse doesn't feature rhyming lines, but it has metered lines, and the meter is iambic pentameter. Each line has ten syllables, and the ten syllables make five pairs of unstressed/stressed lines.
In Line 1, don’t stress “The,” but stress “land”; don’t stress “was,” but stress “ours”; don’t stress “be,” but stress “fore”; don’t stress “we,” but stress “were”; and don’t stress “the,” but stress “land’s.” Here, the meter emphasizes the importance of “land.” It appears twice in the line, and the reader stresses it each time. The land is the gift—it’s the reason for the “we” in the poem, and the iambic pentameter calls out its centrality.
Arguably, the lack of rhyme reflects the struggles and conflicts of the United States. Though the repetition creates some rhythm, the poem isn’t melodious. Like the nation, the poem sounds rather harsh or atonal. The absence of harmony also undercuts the “we,” hinting that the “we” isn’t unified and doesn’t share the same political or economic interests.
The shape of the poem highlights the solemn aspect of the gift. There’s only one stanza, so there’s no room for the lines to breathe. In a poem about a nation centered on freedom, the lines lack liberty. Frost packs the lines together, giving the poem a dense, brick-like look. In other words, the form makes the poem heavy—like a burden. The appearance links to the speaker’s message that the gift has more to do with obligation and duty than happiness.
Diction and Tone
Diction and tone are two literary devices that often go together, as the diction (the words the poet uses) regularly creates the tone (the speaker’s feelings, thoughts, or viewpoint). Though Frost claims his poem is a condensed history of the United States, the words “United States,” “America,” or “Americans” never appear in the poem. The diction contains three proper nouns: “Massachusetts,” “Virginia,” and “England” (Lines 4-5). The lack of proper nouns in a poem about a specific proper noun gives the work an enigmatic tone, and the indirect words make the poem feel cryptic. The repetition expands the enigma, as the repeated words don’t add clarity but contribute to the puzzle. The repetition of “land” (Lines 1-2) and “possessed” (Lines 6-7) turns the lines into riddles or mysterious equations.
The diction and tone aren’t straightforward, leaving the poem open to multiple interpretations. A common interpretation links to postcolonial theory, and the speaker uses the word “colonials” (Line 5), conceding colonization. Diction like “unstoried, artless, unenhanced” (Line 15) supports a postcolonial reading, perpetuating the falsehood that the land was empty or not developed. However, due to the perplexing diction and tone, different interpretations emerge. The reader can view the poem not as a celebration of colonialism and oppression, but as a solemn reflection on the paradoxes and conflicts that comprise the history of the United States.
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is a literary device that applies human traits to nonhuman things or entities. In the poem, the speaker refers to the land as “she” (Lines 2, 3, 16). Countries aren’t humans, so they can’t have specific genders. Yet the speaker gives America a gender, transforming it into a woman. By turning the United States into a woman, the speaker turns a large, complex political entity into a single person. They twist it into a tangible human, making America easier to fathom. As the speaker presents the nation as a woman, the country/woman comes across as a goddess or queen. They’re not an average, regular woman, but a forceful woman that people “surrender” to for the sake of “salvation” (Line 11). The woman commands obedience and sacrifice, and her subjects, after some “withholding” (Line 8), yield to her demands.
The anthropomorphism adds irony to the poem. The twist is that the Americans fought to overthrow monarchical England and establish a democracy, yet the poem presents the relationship between Americans and the land/woman as monarchical. The woman is the ruler, and Americans work to further her interests. Though, as a queen, America isn’t superficial or deceptive: It’s “unstoried, artless, unenhanced” (Line 15). The queen is natural and simple—she doesn’t expect lavish glamor. The unadorned woman perpetuates the misleading trope that Americans were simple, hardworking people, not motivated by greed or riches. Slavery and the ongoing wars with Indigenous people indicate that profit and covetousness animated many Americans.
Related Titles
By Robert Frost
