Two Tramps in Mud Time

 On the surface, "Two Tramps in Mud Time" seems to display Robert 
Frost's narrow individualism. The poem, upon first reading it, seems 
incongruent, with some of the stanzas having no apparent connection to 
the whole poem. The poem as a whole also does not appear to have a 
single definable theme. At one point, the narrator seems wholly 
narcissistic, and then turns to the power and beauty of nature. It 
is, however, in the final third of the poem where the narrator reveals 
his true thoughts to the reader, bringing resolution to the poem as a 
single entity, not merely a disharmonious collection of words.

 At the outset of the poem, the narrator gives a very superficial 
view of himself, almost seeming angered when one of the tramps 
interferes with his wood chopping: "one of them put me off my aim".
This statement, along with many others, seems to focus on "me" or 
"my", indicating the apparrent selfishness and arrogance of the 
narrator: "The blows that a life of self-control/Spares to strike
for the common good/That day, giving a loose to my soul,/I spent on 
the unimportant wood." The narrator refers to releasing his 
suppressed anger not upon evils that threaten "the common good", but 
upon the "unimportant wood". The appparent arrogance of the narrator 
is revealed as well by his reference to himself as a Herculean figure 
standing not alongside nature, but over it: "The grip on earth of 
outspread feet,/The life of muscles rocking soft/And smooth and moist 
in vernal heat."

 Unexpectedly, the narrator then turns toward nature, apparently 
abandoning his initial train of thought. He reveals the 
unpredictability of nature, saying that even in the middle of spring, 
it can be "two months back in the middle of March." Even the fauna of 
the land is involved with this chicanery; the arrival of the bluebird 
would to most indicate the arrival of spring, yet "he wouldn't advise 
a thing to blossom." The narrator points to the conclusion that, 
while on the surface, things appear to be one thing, there is always 
something hidden below, much like "The lurking frost in the earth 
beneath..."

 In the final three stanzas of the poem, the "frost" within the 
narrator comes to the surface. The humility of the narrator comes to 
light, with the narrator saying that the tramps' right to chop
wood for a living "was the better right--agreed." The narrator also 
says, "Except as a fellow handled an ax,/They had no way of knowing a 
fool," insomuch as admitting to his foolishness.

 On the surface, the poem seems to be two poems with diverging 
themes. However, Robert Frost guides there two apparently unrelated 
thoughts into one idea from the heart: "My object in living is to
unite/My avocation and my vocation/As my two eyes make one in sight." 
 Perhaps the narrator is the true Frost coming to the surface.