The Mocking Echo in His Mind

In his poem “The Most of It,” Robert Frost presents tension between one’s pursuit of “counter-love, original response” and the hard reality that everyone is in fact alone.

The poem begins with an indirect statement, “he thought he kept the universe alone,” recognizing that he is alone and lonely. Though he sometimes cries out for original response, what he can hear is the repetition of his own voice, “mocking echo.” Frost’s choice of words, “mocking echo,” is so exquisite that we immediately realize the intensity of the narrator’s solitude. Though he wants and needs “counter-love, original response,” only “copy speech” is returned in response to his cries. Despite his effort to gain a new, genuine reply by not using the same diction again, the nature does not respond other than giving back what he has given. The nature is in front of him, but the nature lacks human presence. In the middle of his loneliness, suddenly there appears some sort of reply to the narrator’s cry, “the embodiment.” That is, “a great buck” appears. How to interpret this is quite ambiguous. A great buck appears powerfully, but the narrator states at the end of the poem “and that was all,” which implies that he is not fully satisfied with the response from the nature. The narrator’s feeling is also revealed when he chooses the word “embodiment” to call the response, which itself is vague in its meaning. Though the buck constitutes a due response from the nature to his cry, he is not fully satisfied with the reply because the buck is also a part of the nature, short of “proving human.” Throughout the poem, Frost uses the third person “he,” without any explanation about who “he” might be. Hence, “he” is not a specific person but any human being.

Frost uses simile such as “pouring like a waterfall” and helps readers to visualize the scene. However, the dominant poetic element in this poem is imagery, both sound imagery and sight imagery. “The voice,” “the mocking echo,” the “cry,” and the way the buck “crashed” and “splashed” constitute sound imagery. The way the buck “crashed” and “splashed” emphasize the dynamic nature of the wild and the loneliness of the man. The “talus” and “the boulder-broken beach” of the “tree-hidden cliff across the lake” and the way “a great buck powerfully appeared” by “pushing the crumpled water up ahead” and by “stumbling through the rocks with horny tread” constitute sight imagery. The “talus” and “the boulder-broken beach” convey the scale of the “tree-hidden cliff.” Robert Frost does not use exaggerated words in the poem, but he generates the expected effects through careful choice of words.

Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets, not only because he produces a poem that is easy to understand, but also because he produces a poem that makes me think. “The Most of It” portrays man’s yearning for a genuine response to his voice, man’s solitude in the Nature, and somewhat ambiguous response from the Nature.

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The Most of It -Robert L. Frost

He thought he kept the universe alone;
For all the voice in answer he could wake
Was but the mocking echo of his own
From some tree-hidden cliff across the lake.
Some morning from the boulder-broken beach
He would cry out on life, that what it wants
Is not its own love back in copy speech,
But counter-love, original response.
And nothing ever came of what he cried
Unless it was the embodiment that crashed
In the cliff’s talus on the other side,
And then in the far-distant water splashed,
But after a time allowed for it to swim,
Instead of proving human when it neared
And someone else additional to him,
As a great buck it powerfully appeared,
Pushing the crumpled water up ahead,
And landed pouring like a waterfall,
And stumbled through the rocks with horny tread,
And forced the underbrush–and that was all.

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Photo Credits: “Cliffs of Moher” by Matt McGee on Flickr

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