Introduction of the Poem:
The poem “Directive” first appeared in The Winter 1946 issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review. It was later published in Steeple Bush. The poem is about a seeker who goes to a lost farm which is situated on “this side of Panther Mountain”. In the past this farm hummed with activity although now it is deserted and lonely, “burned, dissolved and broken.”
Now the place has acquired the smoothness of a graveyard which is sculptured with marble. The farm is there, but it is no more a farm, the town is there but it is no more a town. The poet directs the seeker that he must go along the road but his goal is neither the road, nor the house nor the toys which he can still find there, but rather the brook, which once provided water for the house. Water thus becomes a symbol of rejuvenation and renewal of life. Near this brook can be found a drinking goblet.
“A broken drinking goblet like the Grail
Under a spell so the wrong ones can't find it.”
The poet, in the end, makes a reference to the Last Supper of Christ which reminds the poet that this is the ultimate truth which the seeker must find.
Summary of the Poem:
In this poem the poet acts as a spiritual guide of one, who seeks to escape from the present day world of confusion by drinking the water of an ancient book. The seeker wishes to become whole again.
The poet advises the seeker to retrace his steps and go back to the times when life was in its pristine purity, because the modern times have become very oppressive. The place to which the seeker is being led has now become simple or free from unnaturalness, because it has now lost its artificial ornamentation. This ornamentation has either been burnt or dissolved or broken due to the weather. It has now become like a grave yard whose marble ornamentation has fallen to pieces. In other words the place is as simple as a graveyard in ruins. As a result of these ravages of weather a house there is no more a house, a farm, where the house was situated is no more a farm, and a town in which both the farm and the house were is not more a town. In other words now there are only the ruins of the house, the farm and the town. There is a road there, but now this road is as much broken as to look like a mine from which stone has been excavated. And then there are huge mounds probably of broken pillars which now look like the knees of a giant. Formerly the town, in the days of its glory kept them covered, but now there is not even a show of these coverings.
The above description refers to the days of glory of New England, a land whose ancient glory is now gone.
In between the description of the ruined town the poet puts in a personal note of his to say that if the seeker agrees to have him as his guide he should remember that he (poet) will like him to be lost (to the present) to discover himself (in the spiritual poet of New England).
The poet further says that there is a story (or not very authentic history) about this ancient town in a book. According to this story the projections on the mountain's side show lines drawn south to east and north to west. These lines or ruts besides being made by the wheels of heavy wagons are the handiwork of a giant like glacier which stretched its legs firmly against the Arctic pole and drew these lines as if with a chisel. The poet informs the seeker that the glacier is still there on this side of Panther Mountain in spirit. But he should not concern himself about it, because of its cooling effect. Also the seeker should not concern himself about a series of hard tests such as of being watched from forty cellars holes, as though the cellars were casks, forty in number, and had holes like pairs of eyes.
The forest feels excited by the presence of the seeker. It shows its excitement by sending rustling waves in the leaves. The cause of this excitement must be regarded as born of the forest's lack of experience of human presence. Then the poet puts a question as to where these trees (woods) were not even twenty years ago. These woods gave shade to a small number of apple trees, the fruits of which had been pierced and decorated by fruit peckers.
And then the poet asks the seeker to sing a cheerful song and see how a man was going on foot just ahead of him after his day's work, or else a man is driving a carriage full of gain. Further the poet says that because the house and the town are situated at a height the joy of his adventure is also high. At this height two rustic cultures had once met and they had lost their separate identity. But now both of them are extinct.
And then the poet, addressing the seeker, says that if he is now sufficiently absorbed in the scene before him he is fit to find his real spiritual self. The poet asks the seeker to move aside the ladder like road behind him and put up a sign telling that the way ahead is closed for all except him. Henceforth he should feel himself at home here. The open space between him and the house is not bigger than a blister made by the harness of a horse.
First of all there is children's make - believe house and there are some pieces of broken china plates under a pine tree. All these things are children's toys. The poet asks the seeker to shed tears of joy at the fact that these small things of no value can gladder the hearts of children and again of remorse at the fact how even big things of great value fail to bring joy to the hearts of grown-ups.
And now, the poet says to the seeker, is the time for him to enter the house, which is now in ruins. At present the house is like a cellar hole covered with lilac flowers and that too is by and by closing like a dent in dough (kneaded flour). This house was a real house and not a make - believe one. This means that real men, women and children lived there.
But then, the poet tells the seeker that his destination and also his fated end or goat is not this house. The poet further tells the seeker that his final destination is a brook, which is former times supplied water to the house and of which the water is still as cold as that of the well from which it springs. As yet the brook is quite near to the well. And it is situated at such a height that it does not overflow. Against it the brooks that flow in the valley are flooded and when they subside they leave their remains hanging on thorns.
Then resuming his statement the poet says that he has left an old drinking vessel, which looks like the (holy) Grail (out of which Jesus Christ drank water at the time of the Last Supper) concealed in an arch - like lower part of the trunk of a cedar tree standing by the side of the water. This vessel is under a charm due to which no one not deserving it, can find it. This fact was confirmed by St. Mark who had said that the undeserving should not find it and therefore be not saved (Further the poet says within brackets that he had stolen it from the play house). Finally he tells the seeker that he has reached his destination i.e. the brook and asks him to drink the water and get rejuvenation and freedom from the confusion of the modern world.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
“Directive”, which was published by Robert Frost when he was seventy - two years old, is an excellent poem. In this poem we come across a person who is in search of something. This seeker is in search of water so that he could “drink and be whole again beyond confusion.” His journey starts from a place which is a town only in name:
“There is a house that is no more a house
Upon a farm that is no more a farm
And in a town that is no more a town.”
These lines remind us of the fact that the pastoral New England of Frost's nostalgia was soon becoming industrialized. The pastoral life was disintegrating. These lines express the poet's yearning for the vanished glory:
The seeker is advised by the poet to move forward on the road:
“Beside the wear of iron wagon wheels
The ledges show lines ruled southeast - northwest,
The chisel work of an enormous Glacier
That braced his feet against the Arctic Pole.”
The poet leads the seeker to an uninhabited place, so to say, in wilderness. This and the reference to “forty cellar holes” and finally to the Holy Grail and St. Mark connect the poem to the wilderness concept in Christian and other western mythologies. In the Bible wilderness has a central position. The term occurs 247 times in the Old Testament and 35 times in the New Testament. This concept carried— great meaning to those who ultimately inhabited the New World. Man could not live in the inhospitable surroundings of a wilderness. Even where there was some rainfall life was precarious. Naturally the wilderness comes to be hated and feared. For the ancient Hebrews the wilderness west of the Jordan River and Jerusalem because of its scanty rainfall came to be associated as a land of curse. When the God of the Old Testament intended to punish a sinful people, the threat of converting a well - watered place into a wilderness was a sufficient threat. With water resources dried up, it was natural that the land would soon become a wilderness. The association of evil with the wilderness is evident from the treatment of the wilderness theme in the Bible. Adam and Eve lived in a valley which was well watered and was full of lush fruits. But sin led to punishment. They were driven out of the Garden and what they now faced was a wilderness - a cussed land of thorns and thistles: “The land of the Garden of Adam before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness.” The story of Adam and Eve gave rise to the idea that wilderness and Paradise are concepts antagonistic to each other. In this poem also the seeker is in search of water, which is the central theme.
The Judeo - Christian concept was given another dimension by the Israelites. The people of Israel after their freedom from the bondage of the Egyptians lived in a wilderness for forty years. Then under the leadership of Moses they received the Ten Commandments which established a covenant between the Yahweh and Israel. After this the Israelites were provided with food and water. Ultimately they were able to leave the wilderness and enter Cannan, the promised land of milk and honey. Wilderness for these people became a land where they could purge themselves of their sins and unite with God. The experience of Israelites started a tradition of going to the wilderness for expiation. When the religious leaders felt that the community was going against the principles laid down by God they went to the wilderness for expiation. John the Baptist in the New Testament continued this tradition of Moses. On the whole, the Christian tradition regarded the wilderness as a place where the corrupt society could be brought nearer God and the promised land of milk and honey:
“Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.”
Randall Jarrell has the following remark to make about this poem: “There are weal places in the poem, but these are nothing besides so much longing, tenderness, and passive sadness. Frost's understanding that each life is pathetic because it wears away into the death that it at last half welcomes - that even its salvation, for back at the root of things , is make - believe drunk from a child's broken and stolen goblet, a plaything hidden among the ruins of the lost cultures . Here the waters of Lethe are the waters of childhood and in their depths, with ambiguous grace, man's end is joined to his beginning. Is the poem consoling or heart - breaking? Very much of both; and its humour and acceptance and humanity, its familiarity and elevation, give it a composed matter - of - fact magnificence. Much of the strangeness of the poem is far under the surface, in the subtlest of details (how many readers will connect the serial ordeal of the eye pairs with the poem's Grail parody?), that one slides under it unnoticing. But the first wonderful sentence, the six lines about the wood's excitement; the knowledge that produces the sentence beginning, ‘I make yourself up a cheering song: the both of them are lost, incidental graces like the ‘eye pairs out of forty firkins the harness gall, the belilaced cellar hole’ closing like ‘a dent in dough’, the plays on the words lost; the whole description of the children's play house, with the mocking (at whom does it mock?) and beautiful ‘weep for what little things could make them glad’; the grave terrible ‘this was no playhouse but a house in carnest’; the four wonderful conclusive sentences – these, and the whole magical and helpless mastery of the poem, are things that many readers have noticed and will notice : the poem is hard to understand , but easy to love.
“On the other hand, W. G. O’Donnell asserts that the poem helps us to understand Frost's attitude towards New England in particular and about humanity and its existence in general. He writes: “The poem possibly be a summing up of Frost's attitude towards New England and towards existence in general. In its gnarled and crotchety way this odd but vigorous poem is one of his surest victories over the danger of a lapse into regional mannerism. Once again he is concerned with evidence of an older New England that faded away into nature and was lost. As he writes about the rural scene this time, however, he is aware of the confused present- “all this now too much for us” -and he casts about for a principle of continuity, a source of strength and wisdom. Unusual and highly effective comparisons and conceits become parts of the central experience, for the imagination in the poem has a metaphysical quality. The directive sends the reader up an old country road and one feels the past close by, peering curiously out of the abandoned cellar holes, ‘like eye pairs out of forty firkins’. But Frost is not sending anyone back to the past or the land of subsistence farming or even to the country atmosphere. The destination turns out to be a brook, cold as a spring, the water of the house that once flourished at the top of the hill. It is not the America of the past that counts but the enduring source of wisdom that created a life full of vitality and happiness. As usual, Frost's directive points to no short cut through current problems. What the poem affirms is the difficulty of finding a true source of spiritual strength. But you must find it. You can't get saved if you don't drink from the mountain book:
Here are your waters and your watering place
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
Thus it becomes clear that “Directive” is a significant poem of Frost which has been found supreme by almost every critic. What is surprising is that every critic has found it adequate on the level on which he tries to understand it.
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