"The Aim Was Song" by Robert Frost

Robert Frost was a poet who lived between the years of 1874 to 1963. He sold his first poem, "My Butterfly. An elegy," in 1894 for $15. He has won four Pulitzer Prizes for his works. He wrote "The Aim Was Song" in 1923, at which time he was living in New Hampshire.

      The Aim Was Song

      Before man came to blow it right
        The wind once blew itself untaught,
      And did its loudest day and night
        In any rough place where it caught.

      Man came to tell it what was wrong:
        It hadn't found the place to blow;
      It blew too hard - the aim was song.
        And listen - how it ought to go!

      He took a little in his mouth,
        And held it long enough for north
      To be converted into south,
        And then by measure blew it forth.

      By measure. It was word and note,
        The wind the wind had meant to be -
      A little through the lips and throat.
        The aim was song - the wind could see.

         Frost beautifully blends matter and form to create an ostensible flow through this poem. He uses a consistent rhyme scheme coupled with constant meter to create a feeling of flowing which he reinforced with the content of the poem. At first glance this poem might seem like a criticism of man's innate habit to conquer and control nature, however the tone of Frost's poem makes it clear that he is celebrating man's ability to compliment the glory of the wild wind and turn it into song. Frost does not claim that man stopped the wind, only changed its direction. The wind, before man’s intervention, was struggling to find “the place to blow,” in that it blew with enthusiasm but without order. This playful characterization of the wind helps the reader understand his view towards the subject. In the last stanza, he says “It was word and note, / The wind the wind had meant to be,” confirming the audience’s belief that Frost approves of man’s correction of the wind.
This poem can also be understood in the context of art in general, where the wind is all that has potential to be created, and the man forming song as the artist. Frost shows the audience that art is always there, it is up to man to form and mold it. Whether it song, poetry, or even the old oil on canvas, art is just the taming of a wild, abstract idea of beauty.