Departmental by Robert Frost
"Departmental" is a poem by Robert Frost, written during the 1930s, that explores the nature of social organization through the lens of an ant colony. The poem offers a playful yet insightful observation of how ants respond to death, emphasizing their specialized and dutiful behavior. When an ant finds a dead moth or another ant, its response is purely procedural; it reports the finding to designated authorities, who then facilitate a formal burial, while the rest of the colony continues its routine. This portrayal highlights a stark contrast between the unfeeling efficiency of ants and the more complex, often emotional human reactions to death.
Frost's work subtly critiques the bureaucratic tendencies of human institutions, suggesting that while ants function through instinctive, impersonal routines, humans have the capacity for deeper emotional reflection that can be lost in rigid social structures. The poem is structured in iambic trimeter with clever rhymes, blending humor with a serious commentary on human behavior. Ultimately, "Departmental" invites readers to reflect on the implications of adopting ant-like efficiency in human society, provoking thought about the balance between functionality and emotional engagement in social interactions.
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Departmental by Robert Frost
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1936 (collected in A Further Range, 1936)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“Departmental,” a Frost poem of the 1930’s, typifies its author in several ways. It is playful, full of clever rhymes, and closely observant of a natural scene that mirrors aspects of human life. In this Depression-era poem, Frost focuses on the popular theme of social organization. It is almost a fable, though it implies, rather than states, its moral.
To follow an ant on a tablecloth, the poem says, is immediately to see dutiful and specialized behavior. “Departmental” focuses on ants’ way of dealing with death. If a particular ant finds a dead moth, its only obligation is to report the moth to “the hive’s enquiry squad.” Even when it encounters the body of another ant, it merely informs the proper authorities, who arrange for a “solemn mortician” to bring the body back home and give it a dignified burial, while the rest of the colony continue about their business: “It couldn’t be called ungentle./ But how thoroughly departmental.”
As observed, the ant colony excludes a host of what one considers human reactions. There is no “surprise” at death, no pausing to mourn or reflect on its meaning. The ant does not slow down, is not at all “impressed.” Other than a formal report, there is no talk, no standing around and staring, as one expects at the scene of a fatal accident. Everything is routine, designated behavior and prescribed ritual. Ants are efficient; they eschew all the impractical reactions of human beings. Frost’s ants are not cruel, but they are unfeeling and robotic in their reactions to death, as though it has been decreed that death is, after all, a commonplace event that should not be allowed to interrupt duty or waste the time of the populace.
Thus Frost calls attention to a basic difference between ants (at least as humans perceive them) and humans. The fact that death is common does not, for humans, negate its profundity. Human reactions are often not profound and seldom “useful,” but they betoken the human way of experiencing life. The ceremony of a funeral, moreover, brings together in common cause people who otherwise may have few opportunities to socialize; such differences hover in the background of Frost’s poem.
The differences between ant and human conduct, however, also call attention to the bureaucratic or “departmental” likenesses. The ant world of Frost’s poem has been constructed with frequent analogies to specialized human institutions: janissaries, commissaries, courts, and the “state” funeral of a deceased dignitary. Ant behavior cannot be described successfully, it seems, without reference to concepts totally beyond the range of ants. Unlike ants, who do it instinctively, human beings have to learn to be efficient and impersonal. Because humans are capable of modifying their social norms, they run the risk of damaging specifically human ideas and feelings when they adopt the modes of social insects. Ants must be “departmental”; people do not have to be. Like an ancient fable, the poem amuses, then challenges its reader by comparing human conduct to that of other branches of the animal kingdom.
The lines are iambic trimeter, with a liberal sprinkling of anapestic feet. Rhymes are prominent, chiefly in couplets, occasionally triplets, with one quadruplet. A number of them— “any” and “antennae,” “atwiddle” and “middle,” for example—are the sort of feminine rhymes that often serve to reinforce humor. It was axiomatic with Frost to convey inner seriousness with outer humor. “Departmental” shows him avoiding the sugar-coated pill by blending the “sugar”—the delight—and the “pill”—the enlightenment—in a poem that appears light and droll but that slyly satirizes a prevalent human weakness: a tendency to design human institutions inhumanely.
Bibliography
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