Or the woe were not earthly woe
To which you give the assenting voice.’ (50-56)
God warns that the soul will not remember being in heaven and choosing to come to earth to its trials, evils, corruptions, and enticements. The choice is ultimately up to the soul: s/he can either stay in heaven in safety or descend to earth and her/his ultimate demise.
Finally, we choose what will happen to us while we live on earth and ultimately where we will go when we die. Choice is essential; it is what enables us to be happy, to make our own way. However, choice is something for which we must all be responsible. Our choices not only affect our lives, but they affect others' lives. The last stanza of Frost's poem reminds us that life here on earth gives us what we choose. Our path is our own making, our own fault: “life has for us on the wrack / Nothing but what we somehow choose” (68-69). Our choices here on earth condemn or save us.
Free will, choice, is both a blessing and a curse. We often say, “if it is supposed to be, it will happen.” We rely on Fate to control our destiny. However, Frost's poem brings up something we often try to ignore; our own choices or someone else's choices determine what our fate will be. We must deicide for ourselves, use our free will, make a choice to choose what we want most. As Milton himself said in Paradise Lost, “He [God] left it in thy power, ordain'd thy will / By nature free, not over-rul'd by Fate” (5.526-527). Perhaps we should listen to two great voices of literature.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. “Trial by Existence.” A Boy's Will and North of Boston. New York: Dover Publications, 1991. unabridged Dover Thrift ed. Ed. Stanley Appelbaum and Shane Weller. 14-16.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1957. 173-469.
Go To Page: 1 2
