Robert Frost's poem "Birches- incorporates a large amount of imagery, defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as the use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. By including imagery, Frost makes the birches come alive, as he presents the reader with multiple mental pictures, therefore grasping their attention and allowing their imagination to run wild. .
"When I see birches bend to left and right across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them."" From the beginning of the poem, Frost uses imagery that makes the content so much more interesting. Not only does he describe the birches in great detail, but he also vividly presents an image of what they actually look like. He does this by his use of imagery. This art however is not confined to the beginning of the poem. Frost continues to describe the birches, "You may see their trunks arching in the woods years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair before them over their heads to dry in the sun."" Frost illustrates the simplest of actions "like a tree trailing leaves "so flamboyantly that you cannot help but to be drawn into the poem. When describing the bending of birches, he says, "I should prefer to have some boy bend them as he went out and in to fetch the cows "some boy too far from town to learn baseball - The imagery used here is even somewhat comedic, which also intrigues the reader further. What also draws the reader's attention is the use of imagery through simple association. In this case, Frost uses a word common to most "baseball "something that nearly all readers can associate with. This is another example of Frost capturing the reader's attention. Even if the reader has no interest in the subject matter, incorporating an image that is easy to associate with, helps to keep him or her interested.
