A Literary Analysis: Silken Tent
... It describes how she is bound by natural law; that which she does not herself have any control over. The tent is not held down by any single rope but is held by “countless silken ties” to “everything on the earth the compass round”. Frost describes these ties as consisting of love and thought. Although the woman appears to be free, she is not. She is bound by her own thoughts of love and ideals. The final triplet further describes the woman’s lack of true freedom. “In the capriciousness of summer air; Is the slightest bondage made aware.” A random summer breeze could cause a rope to tighten. This would make it apparent that the tent is not free to blow away, but bound to the ground. The woman is not free to love anyone she wants if she is bound to one man (married?). The title of the poem The Silken Tent, is a form of verbal irony called a paradox. One does not usually find a tent made of silk; tents are usually made from canvas. Frost uses this literary device to illustrate that he is not actually describing a tent. The first line of the poem makes it very clear that Frost is indeed describing a woman. He uses another literary device called a simile. The line, “She is as in a field a silken tent”, uses as compare the woman to a tent. Frost uses these two literary devices to introduce the reader to the idea of relating a woman to a tent. Following the initial comparison of the woman to a silken tent, Frost uses a metaphor to describe her freedom. The phrase ‘and all it ropes relent’ is referring not to how forgiving the ropes are to the tent. It is referring to how the ropes are very compassionate the the woman’s whims. The following line is another metaphor describing her freedom from that which tries to tie her down. “So that in guys it gently sways at ease”. It takes the woman no effort to avoid the guys ( guides not men ). The first quartet is also not without the use of imagery, another literary device. In the first quartet, Frost gives the reader a visual image of what the tent looks like. This image of the tent is used to give the poem further depth, and is not merely to keep the reader’s imagination active. Most of the descriptions Frost has in this first quartet are to illustrate that the woman looks free. “She is as in a field a silken tent; At midday when a sunny summer breeze; Has dried the dew...” This gives the reader a vivid image of the tent. Although the woman ( tent ) looks free, that is merely an assumption at this point. The next quartet contains yet another metaphor. The ‘central cedar pole’ supporting the woman is a metaphor for the woman’s soul. Frost makes this very clear with the line “And signifies the sureness of the soul, Seems to owe naught to any single cord”. These lines give the woman a great quality of empowerment and independence. The woman is her own being and does not belong to any man. Perhaps the ‘single cord’ is a metaphor for a man that she is free from as she owes nothing to him for her existence. In the first triplet it becomes more apparent why Frost has compared a woman to a tent. The reader probably assumed that the ropes that bound the tent to the earth were not made of the same silken material. The fact that the ties are silken illustrates that the silken ties that bind the tent to the ground are being compared to something that is constraining the woman from true freedom. In this metaphor the ties are probably being compared to the woman’s love and thought illustrating how these realities make her less ‘free’. The final development of the main metaphor of this sonnet is further illustrating how the woman is not really free a...