Neither Out Far Nor In Deep
To Confront Our Problems is to Live in Happiness
"Neither Out Far Nor In Deep," by Robert Frost, is a poem in which Frost is stating that when people visit the beach of an ocean, they always stare out towards the waters but never look back towards the land. Even if they can't see anything, it doesn't stop them from staring out at the sea. Frost is actually using this poem to symbolize the fact that people try to turn their backs from and ignore their problems or fears by leaving them for a while; but eventually they have to return and face those problems or fears.
The title itself suggests that nothing is ever very far or out of reach whether it is something good or bad, such as fears, worries, or troubles. The title is also foreshadowing the end of the poem. The first two lines of the poem are creating the image of people at a beach all standing in the same direction. Line two says they "All turn and look one way." They could all have the same type of look on their faces, or they could be looking in the same direction. Both ways, however, constitutes the reader to believe that all of them must have something in common. Frost does not distinguish anyone from the group. Instead he considers them as a whole; all of them seem sad or worried.
A little more of the meaning is revealed in line three. All of them turning their backs towards the land shows that there's something about the land that they don't want to be thinking about. Frost could have said that they were faced towards the sea and not have mentioned the land, but he didn't; so that shows the land having significance.
The next line could have been joined with the third line, but it makes more impact in this way. By putting it as its own sentence, it separates from the thought of the land. Frost is trying to allow the reader to forget about the land and focus on the ocean. It isn't so much what there is to look at, than to just gaze.
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