"Stars"

"Stars"

How countlessly they congregate

O'er our tumultuous snow,

Which flows in shapes as tall as trees

When wintry winds do blow!--

As if with keenness for our fate,

Our faltering few steps on

To while rest, and a place of rest

Invisible at dawn,--

And yet with neither love nor hate,

Those stars like some snow-white

Minerva's snow-white marble eyes

Without the gift of sight.

The speaker tells us that even if stars are like God’s eyes looking down at us, they actually cannot see anything, they are blind. Frost uses a simile to compare this by saying, “Those stars like some snow-white/Minerva’s snow-white marble eyes/Without the gift of sight” (lines 11-13). The stars look like eyes but they can’t see nor judge. In the second stanza, Frost wants to show us, that stars, by lighting up the sky, help us look for things we wouldn’t be able to find without their light. In the first stanza, the snow seems to be a difficulty for the speaker, as it gathers in all kinds of shapes, forming obstacles. Line 3 is an example of a simile because the snow is being compared to the height of trees, “Which flows in shapes as tall as trees”. There is a case of personification in line 1 “How countlessly they congregate”, because stars do not congregate since they don’t decide where to go. People congregate together, such as in a church. Frost used the word “congregate” to make us see the relation between faith and the stars. Even if bad times come, “When wintry winds do blow!”, (line 4), and we have many difficulties, “tumultuous snow” (line 2), if we look up to the sky, we see how many stars are lighting it at night, making us think that somebody is watching over us.

For more analysis on this poem, you may take a look at the following links: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071217221713AAzuIKl
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost/12034/comments/2