Robert Frost often includes natural imagery in his poems. His intent is usually to show how closely man is bound to the natural environment in which he lives. Other frequently studied poems like “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” are completely constructed around images of the speakers' immediate environment.
The first simile in the poem, “like girls on hands and knees,” comes about a third the way through the poem:
<span>You may see their trunks arching in the woods Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. </span>
Part of Frost's aim has been to show that the birches are vulnerable to the effect “swinging” by boys. This vulnerability is emphasized by comparing them to girls—the trees are delicate, like the girls, but also beautiful in their way.
The second simile comes about two-thirds through the poem. The poem has evolved by this point—Frost has become more serious. In this simile, “like a pathless wood,” Frost is saying that sometimes life becomes difficult, filled with worries and decisions that have no clear answer:
<span>It's when I'm weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs Broken across it, and one eye is weeping From a twig's having lashed across it open. </span>
He uses the simile to compare the physical pain of being cut by a twig to the distress caused by life's cares, and goes so far as to suggest he would like to “get away from Earth awhile.”
The best answer would be A.
The entire excerpt describes the speaker's admiration of the structure, not just of its physical beauty but the history that came with it. This first part of the excerpt details the "recent rust". It is old and a bit rundown, but still very familiar to the speaker. The last part describes how the speaker is trying hard to imagine what the great house looked like when it was newly built --"early shine".
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I'd say that the mood of this excerpt is suspenseful.
First of all, the setting is during the night, and this centers around a man by himself on patrol and hearing footsteps drawing near. Passages like this would usually create a feeling of anticipation for what's going to happen next.
Hope I helped! :3
Tolstoy's novel and Munch's painting show the darkness hidden within everyday life. Ivan Ilych was a mediocre man until his sickness forces him to reckon with his mortality. His story shows that people go through life pretending that they will not die, and that knowledge of death can make all the petty distractions of life meaningless. In Munch's painting, the screaming figure can be read as experiencing a devastating realization. Perhaps he is just know admitting to himself that he will die. Both works show emotional challenges that humans face, though other options are also valid: one could argue that they show the artists’ struggle with the concept of the afterlife and, at the same time, that they are a celebration of human life and spirituality. Even though the story makes no promises regarding what will come after, Ivan Ilych gains a greater spiritual insight through his ordeal. Facing death both shows the limits and the possibilities of human life.
