“The Trial by Existence”: Frost’s Early View on the Soul

This essay explores Frost early philosophical view on the soul in“The Trial by Existence”.This poem combines Plato’s The Myth of Er in Republic Book X with the story of the Incarnation in Milton’s Paradise Lost,manifesting that firstly,one’s soul symbolically shares the divine character;secondly,the destiny of one’s soul is chosen by oneself;thirdly,soul and body are inextricable,which means that the material world or the body is the trial of soul’s existence.The greatest merit of the soul is“plunging into matter”and risking it in substantiation while maintains its completeness.