Thank you, CutterMcCool and MaryAnn for the closer considerations.

The questions raised are layered and complex and it's easy to take a wrong turn even with the best of intentions. I find myself less certain of Frost's motives than when I joined this discussion and that fostering a condition of uncertainty maybe the most accurate representation of Frost's intentions and state of mind. Certainly, he cannot be authentic or convincing unless he is himself uncertain and believes this himself.

It is a new vantage point for me in regards to Frost and the DESIGN poem. I confess that I have Frost comfortably filed in my brain as an extraordinary craftsman and talented word-smith but as a lesser deity in the pantheon of major poets. It's difficult enough to see things as they actually are even when they are staring me in the face; how much more difficult then to get into the mind of a complex and, by widely accepted standards, brilliant dead man and say something accurate about his motives. The idea that Frost, like most human beings, could have been uncertain about the nature of good and evil and their connection to the natural world and by extension to human beings is certainly possible and on some level highly likely. But I find this viewpoint, as the driving motive behind the poem, unsatisfying on so many levels. Perhaps that says more about me than the intention of the poet.

I like to think of Frost as committed to a certain ideal and uncertainty as the centerpiece is not it. What appeals more to my gut is the notion that Frost was a careful and close observer of nature and that he 'painted' in that style. I want to believe that Frost saw in nature "charmed force" or "prepared mud" and was not a materialist or conflicted about this. While this point of view brings Frost closer to the philosophy of Teilhard de Chardin than popular Intelliigent Design proponents it is still a far cry from clear. Maybe this "uncommitted" theme is at the heart of some of the criticism that MaryAnn refers to. I have not studied Frost nearly enough to be able to say with any authority if this is true. I will take a closer look at some of my favorite Frost poems to see if I can find the kind of 'commitment' or lack that this discussion has raised.

Thank you both for your thoughts and efforts.

Elj.