“The Gift Outright” - By Robert Frost

The present poem of Robert Frost can be considered as it poem of colonial conflict. In America between the Native Americans and the settlers who from different countries of Europe settlers writes this poem about conflict between settlers as colonizers and native people as colonized.

The “Gift” in the title represents the American identity. the use of “Outright” expresses how the colonist’s identity as Americans was always destined to be theirs.

This poem is part of the genre of that time which is Modernism. At this time Americans had just recently been through 2 World Wars and the Korean War. We were going through the Vietnam War at the time also. This poem is Modernism because it correctly reflected the attitude of the people of that time. It showed Nationalism and how people were trying to improve the future. Independence Day this film does best to reflect the attitude Robert was trying to show. To show how we have fought in the past for independence and we will continue to fight even against the worst odds.

In the gift outright Robert frost describes the history of America as a nation from the time of the European colonists. Even though the colonists were the owners of the land they did not have a national identity from it because they were still tied to England in some ways. Then they realized that they did not have to keep denying their beliefs in freedom so they embraced the land and then they were able to establish an American identity. They also had to go through wars in order to mark the land as theirs but after all that they went trough they finally got their beloved American Land.

As Robert Frost stated, this poem is essentially telling the history of The United States. It begins with the colonists coming to the New World, sent by their home country England. The colonists no longer feel like they are a part of England but rather America. However, in name, they are still English citizens. Until surrendering to the inevitable "American Identity" and claiming the land that is destined to be theirs, they feel "weak". The poem ends on a optimistic and opportunistic note, where "we" hope that America will become all it is destined to be.