Robert Frost Reluctance

[eligenzel]

In class today i wanted to bring this up in class but didn't get to, i am not completely sure about this but i wanted to put the idea out there. Frost says "The leaves are all dead on the ground" which shows what time of year it is fall or the very beginning of winter. then he goes on to say "Save those that the oak is keeping" which shows that he wants to keep the leaves and the feeling of life or summer alive as long as he can. then he says "To ravel them one by one, And let them go scraping and creeping" and i looked up the meaning of ravel and it means a tangle or cluster, and the scraping and creeping part could be him raking the leaves because when you rake leaves you ravel the or put them into a cluster and the rake itself could sometimes make scraping and creeping noise. Then the poem says " Out over the crusted snow, When others are sleeping" which going with the raking leaves idea could mean whoever the person is in the poem is outside raking leaves at night while everyone is sleeping trying to clear the leaves that are on the thin layer of snow. This is my idea, comment on my thing and let me know what you think.

"The leaves are all dead on the ground,

   Save those that the oak is keeping

To ravel them one by one

   And let them go scraping and creeping

Out over the crusted snow,

   When others are sleeping."

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238118

[stephanie.goldstein22]

I think you used really good quotes to explain how this poem starts out.  I agree that the setting is in the early winter because of the snow, but also the leaves are still falling.  I think when Frost talks about the oak and what it's keeping, he is talking about how there are a few leaves left on an oak tree.  When he mentions the word creeping, I think he means slowly one by one the rest of the leaves are falling.  I have a feeling Frost is also talking about the final leaves falling when he mentions "out over the crusted snow" and "others are sleeping" meaning the rest of the fallen leaves are very still on the ground.

[hmsheeline0524]

In response to Eli's point: I do not think that he is talking about raking because the next stanza begins with "And the dead leaves lie huddled and still". So I really think he is trying to get the point across about how once they stop moving, they have stopped moving forever. You say that the speaking is trying to clear the leaves while everyone is sleeping. I agree with your idea that it is set when everyone is sleeping and the leaves have fallen over a "thin crust of snow". But I think by "scraping and creeping" he means how the leaves fall onto the think layer of ice. Speculation: You know how at Portledge when there is a lot of snow and you can walk on it because it is completely flat? well I hope you said yes because to me that is the opposite of what he means. I feel like the speaker uses the phrase "over the crusted snow" because when you think crusted, you don't think flat you think bumpy. So, the leaves are not going to fall and stay in place right away but they are going to scrap and creep until they find their place and then move no more. Also because it is cold "the dead leaves" are going to be stiff. So the leaves are not going to fall softly on to he thin layer of ice. So i think that with this he is purely talking about the way that the leaves are falling onto the ground from the tree. 

[asheeline]

I mostly agree with what Eli and Stephanie have to say,I believe that Robert Frost wanted the reader to know that the poem was to be set in fall. I do not agree with Eli's reader of the rest of the stanza; I don't think that the phrase," Save those that the oak is keeping" is enough information to conclude that Robert Frost wants to maintain the feeling of life and summer. I also think that lines 9-11 solely mean that Robert Frost is raking the leaves, similar to what Haya said. Even though, we didn't agree on all the same topics, Eli, I think that you did a very good job of using quotes to support your idea,