To Earthward by Robert Frost

To Earthward by Robert Frost E-mail: lets just say I'm an AP students with an A- in the course English IV AP February 2000 To Earthward Robert Frost's "To Earthward" is an intimate lyric in which an old man reflects upon his passionate experiences with love as a youth and the lack of such experiences in his old age. Through diction, imagery and structure, the tone of the speaker changes from one of gentle nostalgia to …

…that accompanies love because he desperately longs for the intense love he experienced as a youth. He "crave(s) the stain/ Of tears, the aftermark/ Of almost too much love" (21-22) because he did not appreciate the transient nature of love until too late in his life. He is left to pound on the ground (his future resting-place), resentful that his longing for love will never be as intense as the experience of love itself.