A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.

-Robert Frost

“A Question” by Robert Frost is based around, well… a question. In the poem the question is asked by something that isn’t specified but can be speculated on.

I would recommend this poem to anybody in year 12 as the question asked of the reader in the poem is a very deep question and really makes you think about your life and what you have seen and done so far. It doesn’t matter who you are but it is quite interesting the different answers you will get but more interesting is the reasons behind ones choice of the answer. It can really reveal a lot about how someone’s inner mind works, their self worth and how they value life in general. So this poem can be very good for people of not just year twelve and would probably be good for meeting new people as it would kind of reveal the backbone of someone’s morals and would make it easier to get to know people by the way they not only interpret the poem but also answer its question.

The poem goes “A voice said, Look me in the stars” this points to the voice being in the stars possibly in them or past them an obvious thought is that Frost is talking about God or Jesus, which I believe is true. Whilst I am an athiest I do quite enjoy looking over things that involve moral pressure of which the bible has plenty. I think that in this poem is saying that god himself is asking the question. “And tell me truly, men of earth” this is God asking that all men answer him truthfully which is one of the biggest things in the bible is being honest and telling the truth it is also like the bible in another sense where it only asks the men rather than humanity or humans, Im not sure whether he was saying men like when people say man as in the sense of mankind but it would go with the bible if it were just referring to males. “If all the soul-and-body scars,” this refers to any harm that has come to us as people body scars as in physical, tangible pain eg: a broken leg or a large cut that has since scarred over. Whereas I assume when Frost talks of “soul” scars he is referring either to damage to our soul in the sense that sinning damages the soul or in the fact or he is referring to “soul” as in our mental scars eg: depression, anxiety that have healed but still left resounding effects on your mental state and personality. In other words the voice is referring to every kind of pain humans can feel. “Were not too much to pay for birth.” Here the question of the poem becomes clear, Frost is asking the reader through the poem whether they think all the pain they have taken in their lifetime are a worthy price to pay for the gift of life.