A metaphor is a type of figurative speech that describes something using a non-literal word or phrase. Therefore, an extended metaphor describes something non-literally using several lines and sometimes even the whole text. Robert Frost uses such literary devices in his poems. Mending Wall by Robert Frost is about two neighbors that work together to repair the wall that separates their properties from each other. The Cow in Apple Time also by Robert Frost is about an obstinate cow that breaks through a wall to escape her pasture for an apple orchard where she devours apples until she feels agony and reaches her inevitable end. Robert Frost uses multiple images of a wall and a cow as extended metaphors to develop various themes. In Mending
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The cow decides that the wall separating her pasture from the apple orchard means nothing as she thinks, “To make no more of a wall than an open gate” (Frost 2). She does not regard the wall as she breaks through it for the pleasure of eating apples. A more hidden position reveals that when humans want something, they break down barriers that seem impossible to destroy at first. The cow penetrating through the wall for apples establishes the theme through the concept that nothing can get in the way of humans when they desire something. Once the cow reaches the orchard, “She runs from tree to tree where lie and sweeten / The windfalls spiked with stubble and worm-eaten” (Frost 8-9). The cow frolics amongst the apples, despite them being chewed up by worms and lying on the ground. Under the surface, humans take all they can when they can in spite of how revolting the thing they are procuring may seem. The cow ingesting worm-infested apples correlates with the theme by suggesting that humans go through anything to get even a fraction of what they want, while in actuality what they are getting isn't the real deal. After consuming as many apples the cow can, “Her udder shrivels and the milk goes dry” (Frost 11). She ate so many apples that her milk spoiled. Under the surface, what happened to the cow, in the long run, represents how being too greedy and continually fulfilling wants can in time destroy greedy humans. Frost constructs the theme that greedy humans constantly do whatever possible to obtain more than they have and these people will ultimately suffer in The Cow in Apple Time through assorted images of a cow that succumbs because she prefers to eat apples rather
The cow decides that the wall separating her pasture from the apple orchard means nothing as she thinks, “To make no more of a wall than an open gate” (Frost 2). She does not regard the wall as she breaks through it for the pleasure of eating apples. A more hidden position reveals that when humans want something, they break down barriers that seem impossible to destroy at first. The cow penetrating through the wall for apples establishes the theme through the concept that nothing can get in the way of humans when they desire something. Once the cow reaches the orchard, “She runs from tree to tree where lie and sweeten / The windfalls spiked with stubble and worm-eaten” (Frost 8-9). The cow frolics amongst the apples, despite them being chewed up by worms and lying on the ground. Under the surface, humans take all they can when they can in spite of how revolting the thing they are procuring may seem. The cow ingesting worm-infested apples correlates with the theme by suggesting that humans go through anything to get even a fraction of what they want, while in actuality what they are getting isn't the real deal. After consuming as many apples the cow can, “Her udder shrivels and the milk goes dry” (Frost 11). She ate so many apples that her milk spoiled. Under the surface, what happened to the cow, in the long run, represents how being too greedy and continually fulfilling wants can in time destroy greedy humans. Frost constructs the theme that greedy humans constantly do whatever possible to obtain more than they have and these people will ultimately suffer in The Cow in Apple Time through assorted images of a cow that succumbs because she prefers to eat apples rather