Summary:
The theme of Robert Frost's poem "A Time to Talk" is that friends should come before work. Through the man putting his hoe down to talk with his friend, we see the importance of friendship in an individual's feeling complete in life and in enjoying a secure life.
A Time to Talk
Brett Boehmke
In Robert Frost's poem, A Time to Talk, the theme is that friends should come before work. The man is doing his labor and sees his buddy on the road. He's about to keep working but realizes that his work won't get any harder so he goes and visits his comrade. In three lines of the poem, Robert Frost expresses his opinion that friends come before work.
"I don't stand still and look around on all the hills I haven't hoed." This example is the third and fourth sentence of A Time to Talk. In this part, the man is standing on the hills and he sees his friend out on the road. He stands and looks around and says to himself this work won't get any harder and decides that friends are more important than work so he goes for a visit. Robert Frost's opinion is that work is important but if your buddies are in need you have to be there for them and not at work. Being there for your friends pays off because if you are there for a friend, they will be there for you. The lesson learned is that you will always have your friends but your work will change all the time.
Frost writes, "I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground, Blade-end up and five feet tall." This example is in the 7th and 8th line of A Time to Talk. This means that he put his hoe in the ground and was about to walk over to his friend. So the man obviously cared about the relationship with his friend more than hoeing the hills. If a man got a call from his friend and his friend needed him if he just went to work instead of going to his friend he would probably lose that friendship. But if he went to his friend and he ever needed him than his friend would come to him. So the lesson is that if you put friends before work than they will probably put you in front of work too. Having friends and being well liked makes you feel much better about yourself, than being lonesome and not having friends.
One example is the 9th and 10th lines of the poem, Frost writes, "And plod: I go up to the stone wall, for a friendly visit." This means that he went to the stone wall for a visit with his friend instead of ignoring him and doing his work. When you put friends before work, you are being a person that cares about having friends and not being lonely. For example, say there was a man and he had this big day at work he had a presentation to present or something. So he's about to leave his house and he gets a call from his friend that his friend needs to get picked up or he will be late for his wedding. The man almost says no, but then thinks about how valuable his friendship is and decides to postpone his own life to save his friendship with the other man. So, if the man ever needs anything his friend will think twice about how valuable their friendship is and will go out of his way to help him. This is a reward for putting friends before work. In the future, he will put all his friends before work because he knows how valuable his friendship and would probably want his friends to do that too.
Obviously, Robert Frost intends for people to put friends before work. Doing this is how people will feel complete and also never be lonely because they will always have friends. Friendship is also one of the key ingredients to having a good and secure life. It is the reader's responsibility to always put friends before work because then, as the author is trying to say, you will always have friends. So remember always put your friends before work even if you have something big at work friends are always more important.
This is the complete article, containing 676 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
