 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

more »

... e soul is "plunging into matter" and risking it in substantiation while maintains its completeness.