Iii. Robert Frost. The Gift Outright

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in California but raised on a farm in the northeastern United States until the age of 10. Like Eliot and Pound, he went to England, attracted by new movements in poetry there. A charismatic public reader, he was renowned for his tours. He read an original work at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 that helped spark a national interest in poetry. His popularity is easy to explain: He wrote of traditional farm life, appealing to nostalgia for the old ways. His subjects are universal -- apple picking, stone walls, fences, country roads. Frost's approach was lucid and accessible: He rarely employed pedantic allusions or ellipses. His frequent use of rhyme also appealed to the general audience.

The Gift Outright was written as early as 1936, but Frost did not publish it until 1941, a few months after the United States entered World War II. Although it had already achieved a level of familiarity and fame among the American public, “The Gift Outright” received special attention when Frost recited it at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. Frost had originally planned to recite a poem entitled “Dedication” that he had written for the event. However, because of the glare of the sun and his poor eyesight (he was eighty-seven years old at the time), he was unable to read his copy of the poem and instead recited “The Gift Outright.”

The Gift Outright

The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

From one perspective, this poem may seem to be nothing more than a triumphantly patriotic work; Frost himself once compared it to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The colonists in America initially struggled to become one with the land because of their ties to England. As years passed, however, they were able to build a commitment to the land and establish their identities as Americans because of their efforts to build a land that was not based on the traditions of Europe. In this way, the poem can be read as Frost’s personal celebration of manifest destiny.

The broad enthusiasm for America that characterizes the poem takes an unexpected turn in the grave thirteenth line: “(The dead of gift was many deeds of war.)” Suddenly, the poem is not only about a commitment to the land, but also a discussion of the Revolutionary War and remorse that the battle over the land caused so many deaths. The use of parentheses in this particular line ensures that the specifics of the war are not mentioned, but does insist that the memory of the war should not be forgotten or cast aside.

The poem can also be read as somewhat defensive and even belligerent in terms of its approach to the land. Frost repeats the term “ours” numerous times in the text, but insists that the “we” of the poem is the white settlers from Europe, rather than the original “owners” of the land: the Native Americans. Frost chooses to ignore the conflict between the colonists and the Native Americans and instead focuses on the clash between the Old World and the New World, the European world of tradition and oppression and the new American world of freedom and destiny. As a result, the type of American identity that Frost expresses is very different from the contemporary understanding of the American identity as an amalgamation of different cultures and ethnicities.