Robert Frost's Poem Once By The Pacific

The poem Once by the Pacific written by Robert Frost makes one think and sends a harsh visualization of what is to come in the near future. It was written in 1928 which was a time period where many Americans where experiencing rough and difficult times. Frost is portraying this image by describing a horrific storm that is about to come ashore off of the Pacific Coast.

This poem was written in iambic pentameter and rhyme to illustrate the thought of the terrible effects that many Americans where going through at this time. The rhyme scheme that Frost uses is AABBCCDDEEFFGG. This is used by the words at the end of every two lines ryhming. Frost uses imagery throughout the poem which allows us to visualize and picture the scene that
He describes the clouds as being low and uses the word hairy, meaning dark and spread out amongst one another. This allows us to visualize and look out into the sky and see a picture of what he is describing. In line 6 he uses the words, “Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes” which means as you looked out into the storm, the wind was causing your hair to enter into your eyes making them somewhat watery. The following lines allow you to picture as if there was a drop off meaning cliff that would be a form of protection from the huge waves that were crashing ashore. Frost says, in line 8 that the shore was lucky in being backed by cliff. In lucky he means that the cliff would provide some type of barrier to the objects that were behind
By saying, “The cliff in being backed by continent” in line 9 he is using the word continent to describe the United States of America and all of the people who were going through this struggling time as one. In the next line, “It looked as if a night of dark intent” he is saying that a catastrophe like this was bound to happen. Using the word intent meaning that there is a purpose for this to happen. In the following lines Frost uses the words, “and not only a night, an age” meaning that this storm was not formed over night. This was being created some time ago and it had finally reached a boiling point in age. Which leads to line 12 that reads, “Someone had better be prepared for rage”. This line stresses that Americans better be ready for what this huge storm is about to bring. When brought ashore it will make a huge impact on America and bring great devestation to this country. This leads to line 13 which says, “There would be more than ocean water broken”. Meaning that not only will water come ashore but there will be a lot more problems to come along with it. In the last line of the poem Frost uses the words, “Put out the Light” which I interpret as the writer of the poem asking God to go ahead and end his life and take him away from this life and end all suffering that has been taking