The poem, Birches, by Robert Frost, uses the metaphor of a boy swinging on birches as a metaphor for youth and then corresponding old age.
Line 15: The extended metaphor is paralleled with how the birches "seem not to break." His use of comparisons enables the reader to view the Birches in numerous perspectives. Here are three metaphors from Birches by Robert frost.
Frost uses imagery throughout the poem to create a vivid image of how he imagines the Birches to be. I think i've found two: Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust— Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away To the top branches, climbing carefully With the same Pains you use to fill a cup Up to the brim, and even above the brim but i can't find a third one!
Change them into similes.As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. A simile is a figurative device wherein one thing is compared to another, usually through the use of a word such as "like" or "as." His use of imagery and metaphors are appealing because they are pragmatic, and create a …
Birches by Robert Frost: About the poem. Robert Frost’s icy ‘Birches’ is more than just the fond ramblings of a nature lover. It is a comparison of the joyful abandon of youth with the struggles and burdens that adulthood brings with it. The down-swinging action of the birch trees takes on a new metaphorical meaning here. A Similie is the comparison of two unlike things using the words like or as. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven Line 13: The extended metaphor reaches its conclusion with the shattering of the crystal dome that was once said to separate earth from heaven. The speaker, trying to escape earthly, adult existence for a brief heavenly spell will necessarily be shuttled back down by the laws of nature. It is also a personal quest to achieve balance between different worlds.Frost expresses this idea using birch trees as an extended metaphor and the recurring motif of a lively lad climbing and swinging down on them. Robert Frost's "Birches" is a poem of fifty-nine lines without any stanza breaks, a condition that indicates the simultaneous flow of imagination with the vision of reality. Notice how appearances are getting tied up with imaginative language and metaphors.