What is Robert Frost trying to say in his poem Birches?
In addition to the other answer, I would also point out that Frost uses a lot of counterpoint imagery. Think light and dark, heaven and hell, life and death, etc. In this one, I think he is playing off the changes one goes through as they age. Yes, thinking back on his youth, but not regretfully, not simplistically. In the end of the poem, we see the depth of his reason: I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree, 55 And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. Even if it is a waste of time, ultimately it is a thing he remembers fondly, and there’s no harm in that.
