Theme--"A Brook in the City" by Robert Frost

Independent Reading Post

Dimension: Theme
Text: "A Brook in the City" by Robert Frost
      This poem is about how a man is observing a house in the city that has a address number and is built on a paved road. He remembers from his past how the house was a farmhouse next to a brook in the country. He used to play in the brook and feels nostalgic. He resents that the brook was destroyed and paved over.
      A thematic statement of this poem is this: When rural areas are developed into urban ones, the consequences may not be positive. This theme is developed throughout the poem by characterization when the author describes how simple and blissful life was in the days of the rural brook. It is also developed by the setting when the author describes the negative aspects of the new setting, like when he describes the "sewer dungeon under stone". These things make the reader infer that the narrator doesn't appreciate the city as much and doesn't advocate urbanization.
      One connection I made to this poem is from the children's book, "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton. In it, there is a house that is built in a rural area. Then, society begins to expand and grow until the little house is surrounded by the big city and yet feels more alone than ever. This book shares the theme of the poem, that urbanization may not be not beneficial.