Young Writers Society

Last week the amazing @Aley shared one of their favorite poems and we generated a bit of discussion on that and I thought I'd share one of my favorites this week.

So without further ado:

Departmental - by Robert Frost

An ant on the tablecloth
Ran into a dormant moth
Of many times his size.
He showed not the least surprise.
His business wasn't with such.
He gave it scarcely a touch,
And was off on his duty run.
Yet if he encountered one
Of the hive's enquiry squad
Whose work is to find out God
And the nature of time and space,
He would put him onto the case.
Ants are a curious race;
One crossing with hurried tread
The body of one of their dead
Isn't given a moment's arrest-
Seems not even impressed.
But he no doubt reports to any
With whom he crosses antennae,
And they no doubt report
To the higher-up at court.
Then word goes forth in Formic:
'Death's come to Jerry McCormic,
Our selfless forager Jerry.
Will the special Janizary
Whose office it is to bury
The dead of the commissary
Go bring him home to his people.
Lay him in state on a sepal.
Wrap him for shroud in a petal.
Embalm him with ichor of nettle.
This is the word of your Queen.'
And presently on the scene
Appears a solemn mortician;
And taking formal position,
With feelers calmly atwiddle,
Seizes the dead by the middle,
And heaving him high in air,
Carries him out of there.
No one stands round to stare.
It is nobody else's affair
It couldn't be called ungentle
But how thoroughly departmental

I've always loved Robert Frost ever since my mother bought a book that had "Stopping by the Woods on A Snowy Evening" in it. She would read it over and over again until it was something we would sing memorized around the house. This poem like "Stopping by the Woods" has a similar sing-song rhyming scheme with its rhyming couplet pairs and vivid imagery making it really memorable. I memorized this one in High School and it's been one of my favorites ever since.

So I think some of the magic is this poem is how it takes very direct language (we're not getting weighed down with a bunch of ambiguous metaphors or a cacophony of images). I enjoy that we get to really delve into this one very specific aspect of what Frost imagines ant life to be, with the different specifics on what they do with their dead. I like that this poem can be enjoyed at the simplistic and direct level of just appreciating the beauty of this one specific image (the ants going around tending to their dead ") but can also go on to be examined and appreciated once we go beyond and look at the larger metaphor between these ants and human beings, and the role of ritual and duty.

I think this poem's meaning is pretty difficult to sum up into one coherent subject or theme. (I'm not sure if that's a weakness or a strength in this poem's case, but I'd be curious as to what others think).

For me this poem's first theme is expressed by the simplicity of the subject matter (ants) which becomes more and more complex throughout the duration of the poem. In this I think it's fair to say that Frost is saying "there's more than meets the eye".

The next theme I'm seeing is the one at the end of the poem in the last two lines
"It couldn't be called ungentle / but how thoroughly departmental" I read this as meaning that sometimes doing a ritual or tradition over and over again might make it lose some of its meaning. I think it might mean that sometimes we live life on auto-pilot and become immune or ignorant to other's pain because we're so caught up in our "tasks" that we forget how to show empathy to others. We might go through with any routine or ritual and get lost in the action, forgetting the real meaning or intention behind it.

I'm curious what your thoughts are behind this poem, here are some discussion questions you can use if you want, but honestly just feel free to share your thoughts whether you've heard the poem before or just skimmed through it for the first time.

Optional Discussion Questions:


Tagging people who may be interested in the discussion:

I guess this is my interpretation of it, if you want it...



It's late, and I might sound kind of stupid, so I'll look at this later.

Hi Alli! Thanks for sharing this favorite poem of yours with us! I always love discussing poetry. I might have to do one of these myself one of these days because I love hearing the context and history behind the creator of the post and their connection to the poem chosen.

I have to agree that this poem isn't completely coherent with the theme or the intended meaning though I can't say that this isn't in-depth. I'm not a personal fan of Robert Frost, though this poem is still interesting. Looking past the rhyme and structure and more at the actual content, I don't mind this poem! I see this starting out simple with the ant and the moth. After this, the poem stretches out to be about multiple ants or even all ants. The poem takes a simple idea and then gives details to make that simple idea hyper-realistic almost as if we're looking at an ant through a magnifying glass.

The meaning of the word departmental itself tells a lot about the poem since I can see Frost meaning for this to be about the organization or department of ants. That's the main theme that I get out of this anyway, which I suppose can also be said as that there's more than meets the eye! What stands out in this piece for me is the amount of detail here actually. How Frost humanizes the ants with a strong form of personification that's executed quite nicely.

That's a specific device that stands out for me although the rhyme is quite noticeable which personally is a bit more conflicting in how effective this ends up being. This poem does well what it does well though! Thanks again for sharing, Alli.

I actually hadn't read this poem before, which is a shocker to me because I've done a paper on Frost which means I've read a lot of his work. I enjoyed the poem for the critical analysis but I feel like some of the rhymes in this one are more, forced, than some of his other poems. Like, I think he can do better, and usually does do better in some of his other poems to keep things like "Janizary" out of rhymes. That feels kind of cheap to me.

That being said, I think it's interesting that @Lupa22 saw ignoring the moth as a sign of disinterest, because I almost disagree with that. I love the interpretation, and I can see where it's coming from, but I'd like to discuss it more!

For me, the idea that they are ignoring the moth isn't disinterest so much as that they have too little time to get off task. They cannot mourn for their dead because it isn't their job to mourn for them. They have to always be on task, and each task has been delegated all the way down to mourning or investigating creatures who might be god.

I feel like this might parallel to humanity too, I agree with that, but I feel like it parallels in a tragic way. Humans are segregating themselves into their positions and jobs, and if, for instance, you're not a member of a family, you won't mourn for the passing of someone. I feel like Frost is saying that all ants mourn, but they're not all allowed to, so only those allowed to actually show it. And who mourns when the person delegated to mourn is the one who died?

It's almost like the poem asks us to ponder our position on this totem pole of ant life. Where do we fit in? What is our function? Are we someone delegated to searching out mysterious beings, or are we someone who is to mourn for the whole of our population, or are we just a collector? Do we just provide sustenance for the rest?

All of the rolls are necessary, and putting them all together, you have a well-functioning society, however, you might lose some of the "humanity" in creating too many specific designations, as the rest of the population loses their ability to do what that one person is designated to do.

If you have a mourning ant, the others can't be mourning.

Thank you all for sharing your interpretations!

@Lupa22 I think it's easy to look over those first couple of lines about the ant running into the moth, because it moves on so quickly from it. But I'm glad you draw attention to it. I do think this part is significant or it wouldn't be in the poem at all. I like your interpretation of it showing a parallel that we end up not having (as humans) much concern for other species or people because it's not our job.

I think I disagree that the ants are indifferent to death in general though, as it seemed really carefully deliberate all the different things they did after the ant had died. --I think this poem has some funny ironies in it. There's a tension between whether or not the ants "really care" about each other (Is it the act or the emotion that shows empathy/care etc?)

Another weird tension is the inter-species one. Looking at a poem about ants as humans we might expect it to be insignificant and simple, but Frost challenges those assumptions. We are almost like the "gods" of ants but we don't care (generally) about their deaths and demise -- are we any better than the ants who don't pause at the death of a moth? Some interesting stuff their. I think this poem is cool because we can look at it through all these lens. As @Nikayla said, we move from focusing on a singular ant, then a group, then maybe ants as a whole. And then I would say, we're almost asked to look at all of humanity.

I think @Aley hits on an important point to about whether or not the ants are "disinterested" -- I've sort of already written about this, but I really want to be sympathetic towards the ants. They seem deliberate, and even if they've lost sight about their personal connection to each other I think they still have interest in their colony as a whole as shown within this poem. It's the classic contrast between correct practice and correct belief. I think both forms of expression are genuine and valid. In this piece, I see the ants as being very interested with the acting out of their lives but not as interested in the emotions and knowledge behind that, and while I think that could be dangerous I also think it's a valid expression that doesn't show "disinterest".

Sorry about the bit of rambling there! But thank you all for sharing your interpretations!

Anyone else reading should feel free to add their own thoughts!

The theme that always stands out to me about this poem is a question of is there more to life/actions than their function? Does sentimentality have any worth? The ants aren't incredibly sentimental; they're willing to leave their fellow ant behind if they know that another more suited to the task will arrive and take care of it with the expected officialness and protocol. But does lacking that almost personal touch take anything away from their society, if gentleness and respect are still present? Is there a need for benevolence in life, or can we get away with compartmentalizing everything and leaving it all to practicality?

I also agree with what you said, @alliyah, about the poem being more than an allegory for humanity, that believing so removes a layer of meaning since allegories are often incredibly shallow. Great point about it being more than it seems. Taking that into account with the theme that I suggested, maybe the ants are actually contrasting humanity? That would add a new layer to the my suggested theme.

Lovely poem, really interesting thread!