Robert Frost was clearly a very religious man. However, he liked to make his own interpretation of the Bible, so he often wrote poems about God’s word. Frost wrote “God’s Garden” in direct comparison to the Genesis story, Garden of Eden. [http://suite101.com/a/robert-frosts-gods-garden-a231018] In the video below you can hear Frost’s poem and it’s similarities to the Bible story.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1j1O7OZwog]
In Frost’s poem, he talks about how God gives one straight and narrow path in the garden, which is to be interpreted as how Adam and Eve were to follow God’s word to guide them alone. However, the poem also states that there was another creator, in reference to the devil, and that he planted alluring gold flowers. The gold flowers represented the forbidden fruit from the Biblical story. The poem talks about the flowers by saying, “that poison the bone and blood”. This line refers to the fall of mankind; Adam and Eve having been deceieved by the devil, or “gold flowers”, caused them the horrors of humanly pain and suffering when God removed them from the garden. [http://suite101.com/a/robert-frosts-gods-garden-a231018]
Within the poem it talks in-depth about the flowers. One stanza states, “And when life’s night came on, they still were seeking gold flowers, lost, helpless and alone”. What Frost was referring to is that the flowers represent the impurity and harmful nature of the world that leads us astray from God. [http://chisnell.com/APEng/LitCrit%20Wikis/God’s%20Garden.aspx] It is within our sinful nature that we seek out unrighteous pleasures that are opposed to Christian-like behavior. However, the last stanza reads “Tend flowers that God has given and keep the pathway open that leads you on to heaven”. Frost was trying to say that by keeping our hearts open to God and staying with the faith we can still find the clear path to heaven. [http://chisnell.com/APEng/LitCrit%20Wikis/God’s%20Garden.aspx]
I personally, really enjoyed Frost’s interpretation of Garden of Eden. A lot of times reading the Bible, people only view the story as a parable of how mankind fell into sin. However, Frost used the storyline to show how even though we have sinful nature, we can keep our minds and hearts open to God to avoid it, and still find our path to righteousness. I think was a good way to view the world and how God wants us to react accordingly.
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