Poem Analysis - Good Bye And Keep Cold

A Farewell to Innocence: Setting the Stage

Robert Frost's "Good-Bye, And Keep Cold" presents a poignant farewell, spoken not to a person, but to a young orchard. The tone is one of protective anxiety, tinged with a wistful resignation. The poem explores themes of vulnerability, the harsh realities of nature, and the speaker's reluctant departure from something he clearly cherishes. There's a subtle shift from specific concerns about the orchard's immediate dangers to a broader acceptance of nature's unpredictable power and the speaker's limited control.

The Orchard's Peril: Vulnerability and the Winter's Threat

The poem's central theme revolves around the vulnerability of the young orchard. The speaker's repeated anxieties, expressed in lines like "I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse," paint a picture of a delicate, defenseless entity. The list of potential threats – rabbits, mice, deer, grouse – highlights the constant dangers lurking in the winter landscape. These threats are not portrayed as malicious, but as natural elements of the ecosystem, underscoring the orchard's precarious position within a larger, indifferent world. The "fifty above" versus "fifty below" is a metaphor for the deceptive nature of warmth; extreme cold the orchard can withstand, but premature warmth will stir it to life, only to be crushed by subsequent frost. This speaks to the orchard's inherent fragility in the face of changing conditions.

Guardianship and Resignation: Control and Letting Go

The poem also explores the theme of limited control and eventual resignation. The speaker's initial desire to protect the orchard is evident in his wish to "summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall" and his satisfaction that it has been "made…secure against being…on a northerly slope." This reflects a human desire to exert influence over nature and safeguard something precious. However, this control is ultimately illusory. The parenthetical asides suggest a growing awareness of the limitations of human intervention. The final lines, "But something has to be left to God," represent a poignant acceptance of this lack of control. It's an acknowledgment that nature's forces are ultimately beyond human management, and that a certain degree of faith or acceptance is necessary.

The Orchard as Symbol: Innocence and Fragility

The orchard itself functions as a powerful symbol. It can be interpreted as representing youth, innocence, or a fragile endeavor requiring careful nurturing. The "young in the bark" description emphasizes its inexperience and vulnerability. The speaker's concern for the orchard mirrors a parent's concern for a child entering a potentially dangerous world. Furthermore, the orchard's isolation – "at the end of the farm, All winter, cut off by a hill from the house" – contributes to its symbolic representation of something precious and vulnerable left to face challenges alone. The phrase "arboreal plight" in a later stanza is a reminder that the orchard is alive, yet immobile and exposed.

Departure and Change: A Season of Absence

The speaker's impending departure adds another layer of complexity to the poem. The lines, "I have to be gone for a season or so," and "My business awhile is with different trees," introduce a sense of transition and change. The contrast between the "carefully nourished" orchard and the "less fruitful" maples, birches, and tamaracks suggests a shift in focus from cultivation and preservation to a more utilitarian engagement with nature. This departure could symbolize a necessary, albeit reluctant, move away from something idyllic and delicate towards a more practical and perhaps harsher reality. The fact that the speaker will be working with wood "done...with an axe" implies a certain amount of destruction in that process, further underscoring the loss of innocence that occurs during separation.

Final Farewell: Embracing Uncertainty

In conclusion, "Good-Bye, And Keep Cold" is a deeply resonant poem that explores themes of vulnerability, limited control, and the bittersweet nature of departure. Through vivid imagery and a tone of protective anxiety mixed with resignation, Frost crafts a poignant portrait of a speaker grappling with the fragility of nature and the limitations of human intervention. The orchard becomes a symbol of innocence and vulnerability, left to face the challenges of winter, while the speaker must reconcile himself to a season of absence and a reliance on forces beyond his control. The poem's final insight is that true care sometimes lies not in constant protection, but in accepting the inherent uncertainties of life and entrusting what we cherish to the larger, unpredictable world.