Frost Explication: Bereft, with King Lear

Robert Frost's poem Bereft is a duality of a storm's brutal reality and a metaphorically berating loneliness, working side-by-side in uses of extensive imagery and other rhetorical devices. The imagery depicts a storm, in "somber clouds" and the angry, "frothy shore." Yet, the underlying theme of loneliness is insinuated by the personification of the elements of the storm: leaves hiss and strike like a serpent. The personification detracts from the realistic depictions of the storm, allowing the reader/listener to expect that the storm is also a metaphor for Frost's loneliness. 

Through personified imagery, Frost addresses the roaring winds and coiled leaves tossed by the storm as being able to receive "word" of his loneliness, and the anger and brooding that the storm appears to possess, shown in particular choices of diction such as "roar" and "frothy", mirror what Frost feels towards the fact that he is bereft of human company or perhaps love. He, emoting vicariously through the storm, expresses his displeasure as well as his apparent unease at his state, reflected in his reference to the "sinister" tone of the storm. 

Lastly, it is possible that Frost, revealed by the final line of the poem, is addressing God in referencing the storm. His tone is somewhat accusatory towards God, as he transitions from speaking of being "in the house alone" to being in his "life alone," apparently pointing towards God that he is alone in the metaphorical house of life, battered by a storm of loneliness and anger. 

The themes of this poem closely mirror King Lear's experience during Act III in which he, disillusioned, angry, and possibly even frightened, cries to the raging storm-- and in effect, to his gods. Lear is also accusatory and distressed over the fact that he feels betrayed by his daughters, loveless, and lonely-- emotions likely similar to those bemoaned by Frost in his poem Bereft. Lear, like Frost, personifies the storm around him, revealing that for him, the storm presents as a metaphor for his own troubled emotions and as God.