Storm Fear by Robert Frost

Storm Fear 

    WHEN the wind works against us in the dark,
    And pelts with snow
    The lowest chamber window on the east,
    And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,
    The beast,
    'Come out! Come out!'—
    It costs no inward struggle not to go,
    Ah, no!
    I count our strength,
    Two and a child,
    Those of us not asleep subdued to mark
    How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,—
    How drifts are piled,
    Dooryard and road ungraded,
    Till even the comforting barn grows far away
    And my heart owns a doubt
    Whether 'tis in us to arise with day
    And save ourselves unaided.

In A Boy's Will, by Robert Frost, the short poem called "Storm Fear" caught my attention because of the setting and descriptive use of literary devices. I had to re-read the poem a couple of times to understand the setting and situation. It made me picture the cold snow, low temperatures, and the wind hitting the barn with so much force that it causes the narrator to begin to fear the wind.

Robert Frost uses imagery to convey the feeling of helplessness and coldness, literally and emotionally. He uses phrases such as "... pelts with snow... the cold creeps as the fire dies at length... till even the comforting barn grows far away..." throughout the poem. These types of descriptive phrases allows the reader to picture the barn in the middle of nowhere covered in ice cold snow. The imagery will than lead to the understanding of the emotions being conveyed such as loneliness, helplessness, and vulnerability. Loneliness and helplessness is shown at the end of the poem because of the narrator, accompanied by two other people (it is unknown whether they are adults or seniors) is without the help of any one, because their barn is in far away from any cities or towns. Vulnerability is shown when Frost describes as the storm as a "beast" that the family can not defeat.