Historical Significance

“The Wood-Pile” by Robert Frost is important in history and in contemporary life because it is an example of Frost's dualism between being a classic poet and a modernist poet.  Frost was in many senses a classical poet, in his form and style.  Yet his content spoke of subjects such as nature and day to day life that could relate much more significantly to common people than most poetry of the previous era, making him one of the foremost poets of his day, and making this work part of a turning point in popular poetry. Frost wrote in a way that conveyed the economic situations of the time period in which he lived and he did it in an easily relate-able way.  Dan Diephouse discusses this in his article “The Economic Impulse in Robert Frost,” where he states “the pile of wood provides a medium of exchange between two minds that have never met, that share certain propensities and that perhaps disagree on others. (How could such a labor be forgotten about? But Frost, in empathy, provides the reason: he understands the workings of a mind that lives “in turning to fresh tasks.”).”  This quote is a good example of someone noting Frost’s duality, because it details how Frost relates it to the economic situation by being baffled at how someone could put labor into something like chopping firewood, and then merely waste all of that effort without reaping the rewards. Yet, at the same time he provides an excuse for it, saying that in going about their business whoever chopped the wood simply moved on to the next task without thinking about it.(Diephouse)