Abandonment and Singularity in Robert Frosts Poetry.

â€Å"One is the Loneliest Number† or â€Å"Does Zero Count?† Abandonment and Singularity in Robert Frost’s â€Å"The Census- Taker† Robert Frost’s approach to human isolation is always an interesting exploration. His poem of desertion and neglect paired with eternal hopefulness ignite the reader in his poem â€Å"The Census-Taker.† All of the elements of a Frost poem are in this particular poem. â€Å"The Census-Taker† must be from an earlier time in Frost’s career because the poem is written in an open, free verse similar to the style of his earlier 20th century poetry like â€Å"Mending Wall† and â€Å"After Apple-Picking.† Also, the language lacks the sophisticated word selection a reader of poetry might find in Wallace Stevens and instead uses simplicity to†¦show more content†¦Moving forward, Frost’s usage of singular adjectives stands out like a sore thumb as he continues to describe the damaged home. The census- taker mentions â€Å"every tree,† (line 18) talks about the leafless trees that would not help a passerby identify the seasons. Gra mmatically, the adjective â€Å"every† carries a paradoxical element. â€Å"Every† plays the role of a singular modifier, yet it describes objects in a group a least larger than three and cannot be used for merely two objects. â€Å"Every† is not wholly singular as the adjective â€Å"each† may be, nor is it completely plural like the function of another adjective, â€Å"all.† Frost uses the isolating modifier â€Å"each† when he describes the slamming of the house’s door by its raucous inhabitants. He says, â€Å"†¦ as if rude men/Passed in and slammed it such each one behind him/ for the next one to open for himself.† (line 29-30) We finally see people and community in the poem, and Frost immediately separates and individualizes his pack of men to suggest a segregation of psychological difference. It is important to point out that Frost’s option to use â€Å"anyone† (line 34) only occurs once, possibly beca use the idea of any one person to be present maybe to extreme in an area made of intense loneliness. This is a home where men are there for a clear purpose, and whatever that purpose may have been, it no longer