In ‘An Unstamped Letter in our Rural Letterbox’, Frost uses rich, romantic imagery, symbolic irony and touching personification to explore how Nature is the key to many things men desire, such as knowledge and fulfilling riches, but cannot reach through their materialistic and artificial self-made lives and systems. He also contrasts Nature’s kind and benevolent presence with man’s hard selfishness and hostility towards minority groups.
Firstly, in this poem, Robert Frost uses the tramp’s affectionate treatment of nature to explore Nature’s kindness towards humans who respect Her. The tramp’s extensive use of nature personification makes his respect and love of Nature evident – it is as if he is giving Her a face and thus more importance. He personifies a ‘young spruce’, which he describes as ‘making a suit of glades’ and ‘pointed like the pip of spades’ (the plosive ‘p’ alliteration here emphasises this simile and conveys a bouncy, vivacious sound, reflecting the tramp’s playful, jovial attitude towards Nature). He describes ‘a low-slung’ juniper acting ‘like a blanket on [his] chin’ keeping ‘some dew out and some heat in’. This simile has connotations of comfort and conveys the idea that Nature is looking after this homeless, solitary man whose fellow humans do not care for him, in return for his loving attitude towards Her. In contrast, the tramp is treated like a nuisance or a danger by the rest of the world, barked at ‘all night’ by the farmer’s watchdog. He is quick to assure the farmer he wasn’t ‘at [his] locks’, perhaps used to being afraid that people will take him for a criminal. Yet Nature, unlike men, looks past his social status and poverty and looks after him. When he fears ‘[he] should never again be warm’, Nature sends a ‘firedrop’ into the sky, a coalescence of stars. The heat and warmth connotations of ‘fire’ imply the firedrop is supposed to warm him but not necessarily physically - with the goal of offering him the gift of spiritual ‘warming’: revelations and knowledge which will bless him in many ways and surpass his physical suffering or limitations.
Furthermore, as well as painting Nature as a benevolent caretaker of lonely humans in need, Frost conveys the idea that education should not be limited to man’s rigid systems only and that one can attain incredible knowledge and understanding just through life and Nature in themselves. There is an irony running throughout the whole poem, with the tramp humbly and derogatorily referring to himself as ‘just a tramp’ (like how he is perceived by other men) and signing the letter ‘in forma pauperis’ (the Latin-style language here would suggest he is ironically knowledgeable about arts and languages as a pauper) yet his language is rich and full of creative, witty imagery, as he compares the field to ‘a city park’ and a ‘young spruce’ to a ‘pip of spades’. The rhyme scheme is a regular pattern with rhyming couplets that help the poem be read smoothly in an easy-flowing manner, which reflects the ease with which the tramp plays with language and describes his experience. He comes across as very educated, smart and capable – despite being ‘just a tramp’ that can’t even afford a stamp. He claims Nature offered him the chance to see everything ‘plain’, knowledge ‘that men have thought about in vain’. We immediately think of scientists, being the men who try to comprehend everything about how the world and Nature works. Is the tramp saying that Nature has given him - an uneducated tramp - all the answers just through this small moment in a field while other men slave in laboratories or schools searching for this knowledge ‘in vain’? Frost seems to be saying that schools are not the ultimate source of education – Nature and life experiences are.
Moreover, in addition to implying Nature holds more answers and wisdom than man-made schools and education systems, Frost uses the tramp’s renewed joy and relationship with Nature to show that Nature harbours more riches that men could never dream of attaining. The alliteration of the consonant ‘f’ in ‘left me freely face to face’ brings the reader’s attention to the image of the tramp being completely alone ‘with universal space’ (the enjambment at the end of the verse forcing the reader to pause and feel the emptiness the tramp feels in his isolation from human contact as he sits one at one with Nature). Though alone, cold and shelter-less, the tramp experiences the beautiful coalescence of two stars and describes how this sight of Nature’s art awoke a new form of life in him, ‘memories that long had lain (the word ‘long’ suggesting he’s been emotionally hardened or obstructed for some time, perhaps through having to deal with the hard world of men) now quivered toward each other, lipped together, and together slipped’. Here the rhythm of the poem quickens, with the emphasis on the plosive ‘p’ and smooth ‘l’ sounds, and gives the reader the sense of the tramp’s growing excitement as he remembers the scene. The sexual imagery here personifies the stars as they seem to kiss ‘lipped’ and ‘slip’ inside of each other and creates a harmonious, romantic and visceral atmosphere that seems to instil such a deep, raw pleasure in the tramp. The tramp challenges the farmer about this, wondering if the latter, a man who farms ‘pretty well’ and thus who has a home and money and ‘advantages’ in general, has ever had this occur to him. He says if he has, it will have not been as raw and powerful as how he himself saw it as he would have seen it through ‘a rusty screen’, a vision ‘rusted’ by his lack of spiritual dependency on Nature. Despite being a tramp and basically the opposite of what the world considers a rich or successful person, alone with nature and having shared a pure moment with the latter, the tramp gets to uncover a richness that leaves him full of joy, wit (‘your tramp astrologer’), wisdom and modesty (‘forgive me if I seem to boast’), all very attractive and beneficial qualities that the rest of the world try to achieve through their own self-made ways. They so desperately try to understand the world and the way it works when the answer is right in front of them and they would discover it, like the tramp, if they just discarded their narrow-minded artificial ways and were one with Nature – a relationship that would bring them many riches.
In conclusion, it can be argued that Frost is criticising the way humans centre their lives around artificial, man-made riches, rules and systems which ‘rust’ humans’ vision, like corrosive pests, and limits them in their wisdom and knowledge. He uses the characterisation of the tramp as a joyful and skilful man to encourage people to develop a close and affectionate relationship with Nature instead of trying to fit into human society and to oppose man’s views on education and social class. He also portrays Nature as a unique teacher and source of education as well as a motherly, caring presence that wants to help and care for humans. Another interesting notion he explores in this poem is the role of Nature as a linking bridge between two men, divided by the rules of the human world.