Two Tramps in a Mud Time Analysis
When initially reading “Two Tramps in Mud Time” it can be looked at as two incongruent poems. Some of the stanzas have no connection to the stanzas before them or following them. One of the two possible poems viewed; the narrator seems narcissistic and focused on oneself. The second poem within “Two Tramps in Mud Time”, the narrator turns to the power and beauty of nature that the reader can relate to. In the final sections of the poem the narrator reveals his deep thoughts to the reader which brings the poem back together as a single whole poem, not disharmonious two separate poems. In the first two stanzas of the poem the narrator focuses on oneself by using me, my or I distinctively. The lines “Out of the mud two strangers came/ And caught me splitting wood in the yard, / And one of them put me off my aim/ By hailing cheerily “Hit them hard!”” makes the narrator sound arrogant and shows that he is annoyed by the two tramps showing up unexpectedly and interfering with his wood chopping (1-4). By the phrases “caught me splitting wood in the yard” and “put me off my aim” makes the narrator sound superficial and what he is doing is above what the two tramps were doing or were about to do. The narrator then immediately jumps to negative conclusions that the tramps wanted to steal his job: “I knew pretty well what he had in mind: / He wanted to take my job for pay” (7-8). “My job” adds to the arrogant narrator because he is classifying his pleasure of chopping wood more valuable than someone else’s job. “The blows that a life of self-control / Spares to strike for the common good, / That day, giving a loose to my soul, / I spent on the unimportant wood”, the narrator expresses that he releases his anger not upon evils that threaten “the common good”, but on the “unimportant wood”; by classifying the wood as unimportant, whereas the wood is important to the tramps, adds to his ignorance and that the wood isn’t crucial to him (13-16). The self-interested narrator is revealed by referring to himself as standing above nature rather than alongside it: “The grip of earth on outspread feet, / The life of muscles rocking soft / And smooth and moist in vernal heat” (45-48). The narrator then unexpectedly changes his attitude away from one’s self interest to the interest of beauty in nature around him. The narrator turns into more of a humble person who is trying to connect with the reader: “The sun was warm but the wind was chill. / You know how it is with an April day” (17-18). In the middle portion of the poem the narrator is expressing the unpredictability of spring: “When the sun is out and the wind is still, /You’re one month on in the middle of May. / But if you so much as dare to speak, / A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, / A wind comes off a frozen peak, / And you’re two months back in the middle of March”(19-24). The narrator wanted to emphasize that it was spring but that the weather can surprise us and still act like the winter. The narrator also tells us that everything may not be what it appears to be on the outside and that some things are hidden underneath: “ Be glad of water, but don’t forget / The lurking frost in the earth beneath / That will steal forth after the sun is set / And show on the water its crystal teeth” (37-40). The “frost” that the narrator speaks of is the frost within himself. The last three stanzas of the poem show the narrator coming to terms with himself. The narrator admits his foolishness: “The judged me by their appropriate tool. / Except as a fellow handles an ax / They had no way of knowing a fool” (55-56). He continues to show humility and showing his true “frost” that was hidden underneath: “With what was another man’s work for gain. My right might be love but theirs was need. And where the two exist in twain/ Theirs was the better right—agreed” (61-64). “My avocation and my vocation/ As my two eyes make one in sight,” finalizes that the narrator wants to combine his pleasures and hobbies with his career, or in this particular case, someone else’s (67-68). “Two Tramps in Mud Time” had two story lines that didn’t seem parallel in the beginning but in the end they came together to show whom the narrator was underneath. The narrator started out as arrogant and only self-interested then he drastically changes topic to the unpredictability of spring that the reader can relate to. The author finally shows humility and comes to terms with what was hidden within him. He admitted that another man’s work has to be taken in consideration with one self’s pleasures. This narrator could be the author Robert Frost himself coming to the surface and expressing his internal battle between his own needs against selfishness.