The Gift Outright

The poem is relatively short and expresses the feelings of Frost, making it a lyric. As Frost’s tone and diction aren’t clear-cut, the poem works as a riddle, and the ambiguous words become pieces that the reader must interpret. The poem also meets the criteria for the elegy genre, with Frost reflecting on America’s past as if it were a departed friend or family member.

Frost isn’t the speaker of the poem, as the speaker remains part of an ambiguous “we.” The plural pronoun indicates the speaker is talking for Americans, and “the land” (Line 1) is the United States of America. The context—Kennedy’s inauguration—supports the thesis that the speaker is American and is anointing themselves as a representative for other Americans. In other words, the speaker symbolizes the voice of the United States and its citizens. However, the speaker’s beliefs could push readers to separate themselves from the “we,” if they don’t agree with the poem’s message.

The title, “The Gift Outright,” indicates a central theme—The Positives and Negatives of Gifts—while also previewing the speaker’s subversive