Willie BreslauProfessor PollakCOML 110911/27/13“Reluctance” by Robert FrostAn extended metaphor of a road, representing the life of man and the journey he has undertaken, runs throughout Robert Frost's poem "Reluctance." The title and last line help break through the metaphor and understand its meaning, as Frost reflects the hesitation of humans to accept change and the inevitability of a natural end, be it “a love or a season.” “Reluctance,” along with many of Frost's other poems, focuses on the changing of the seasons and how the narrator reacts to that change. However, while each narrator in "Reluctance," "Spring Pools," and "Nothing Gold can Stay" displays different emotions regarding the seasonal changes they witness, they all display the human hesitation to accept change and hold on to what they have in the present . The sketch I drew for this poem shows a man who appears wizened from travel with a long beard and wrinkled skin walking alone on a “highway.” Behind the narrator, I drew a small globe to represent that he is now returning from his travels around the world and in front of him a small town labeled as home. Surrounding the man on the highway are trees that have lost most of their leaves and leaves that are being blown away by the wind onto the snow-covered ground. Other plants are drawn with fleeting life, as winter seems to be arriving if not already here. “Reluctance” is made up of five stanzas of six lines each. The meter of poetry is complicated. In Frost's terms, this poem might be considered in loose iambic trimeter, but would be more appropriately described as trimeter. An interesting feature of the meter of this poem is that the last line of each stanza switches from trimeter to dimeter. Each stanza is composed of the rhyme sc...... in the center of the card...... In all three poems, change is represented as a transition between seasons with the narrator being fascinated by the present and not he wants time to change what they have. In “Reluctance” the seasons are more than actual seasons as they show a turning point in the narrators where he must decide to embrace change or follow his heart. In “Spring Pools” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” the narrators both point out the short-lived beauty of nature due to the changing seasons and so desperately long for the delay of that change. However, both narrators almost reluctantly come to the conclusion that change can bring more beauty, but they are worried about losing what they have in the present. Frost's mastery of poetry, nature and human behavior are beautifully woven into these poems to create powerful messages that will continue to be relevant as humanity struggles to accept change..