Overview
Frost’s Neither Out Far nor in Deep, is quite an unusual
poem. It is short, only sixteen lines, but can be termed a treatise on the
human condition. Frost presents the theme of human yearnings and limitations
through the use of paradoxes, negatives, and pervasive sea imagery, yet the
tone is reassuring. Above all, Frost pays tribute to man’s determination and
persistence, endowing him with positivity and dignity.
Structure
The poem has a simple, tight structure. It consists of four
quatrains rhyming abab, with a pacing rhythm that creates a positive
force and energy.
The title effectively
establishes the theme of human limitations with the two negatives, neither and
nor set against two adverbs, far and deep that depict the vastness, depth, and
mystery of life. Also, its three sets of parallels-neither/nor, out/in,
far/deep masterfully portray the human condition with its complexity and
confusion, and the inaccessibility of truth.
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The poem opens with the image of people along the metaphorical
seashore:
They turn their back on the land
They look at the sea all day
The general human trait-conformity is strikingly conveyed
through:
All turn and look one way
Frost, the poet of The Road not Taken, points at our fear
of being different, at our apathy towards our present, and our carelessness
about what we know (“the land”). We pursue what we don’t have or don’t
know about, symbolized by “the sea”. Looking also connotes watching,
pondering, feeling lost, and disconnected. Hence, the sea is an appropriate and
effective metaphor for the eternity of time and the profundity of life, of
truth. Its depth and vastness also make it a symbol of unlimited human desires
and aspirations. The sand is a universal metaphor for Time.
The continuous arrival of ships again points at the eternal
adventure, mystery, and romance of the sea as compared to the stagnation
depicted through the glass-like shore. We suffer stagnation because we ignore
that the ground, our present life, has its reality. The gull tells us that it
can fly off, but is standing, waiting, for this is what is required at the
moment!
The third stanza tells us it is the “truth” people are
looking for, giving dignity to the pursuit. The land, our present human life,
may offer variety and diversity, but the tides from the vast, unknown world,
the future, beckon and lure, “And the people look at the sea”.
There are smaller things that need to be looked at, as well.
The long dash at the end of line 10 makes us pause to reflect on
“wherever the truth may be”—it is not necessarily there!
There is a significant shift in the last stanza: Frost, as the
detached speaker, has been telling us what the people are doing: ignoring one
thing, yearning, and aspiring for another. Now, the tone though skeptical,
“They cannot…”, becomes tender, admiring:
But when was that ever a bar/To any watch they keep?
The word “bar” is characteristic of how first can use a
simple word to great effect, bringing out all it connotes: the sand ridge made
by the waves becomes a metaphor for all limitations, obstacles natural or
man-made. The repetition of words connected to seeing and reflecting is
remarkable: “look” comes five times and “watch” caps up the poem.
We may lack complete discernment and depth, but we do keep looking.
Conclusion
The steady rising rhythm, the regular rhyme scheme, the simple
monosyllabic words, and the rhetorical question at the end, all give force to
the poem that pays homage to man’s heroism, his determined, persistent struggle
“to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield” (Tennyson). There
is no protest, no exaggeration, only a calm acceptance, and reassurance.
Food for Thought
Interestingly, Pearlman says the poem is an allegory of the 1930s American conformism, it's turning to foreign socialist ideologies.
