es ashore, And the people look at the sea.”Although their vision is limited, “They cannot look out far...They cannot look in deep,” they continue looking. They cannot help searching for answers and there is nothing else for them to do. According to author John Muste, “The form implies a rigidity in the minds of the people being described, a lack of imagination which leads them always to look in one direction, however unrewarding their study may be”(1481). His view implies that there is a simplicity to these people. They fail to see anything in detail, due to their lack of imagination, which is an obstacle to their understanding to begin with. They look to the ocean to provide them with answers to life’s questions, but the irony of the unchanging ocean being a symbol of stability, is actually just a dead end. Since it never changes, it is not going to have any answers tomorrow, for example, that it does not have today. Since they continue to look, never being able to see farther or deeper, they are simply preventing their search from being able to come to any conclusion. The people are looking for answers to life from a source that cannot provide those answers. Since they cannot even realize this, they will never find any answers, and will continue to lead a shallow existence. Even through the basic simplicity of the poem, we can decipher the irony that Frost is conveying. Unlike “The Road Not Taken,” we cannot find a way to come to a positive conclusion at the end of “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep.” Frost deviates from his usual poetry form when writing “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep,” both in the simplicity of the detail and the lack of conclusion or positive imaging. By closely reviewing and analyzing these two of Frost’s works, we are able to see two sides of the spectrum of his views on life. In both of these poems, he uses objects in nature to...
