What does the Poem "The Span of Life" mean???

Question

What does this poem by robert frost mean?????

The Span of Life
The old dog barks backwards without getting up.
I can remember when he was a pup.

Answer 1

What the poem describes is pretty straightforward. The power comes from the emotional reality behind the description.

In the first line, we see and hear an old dog turn his head over his shoulder to bark at something behind him. But the dog doesn't get up, presumably because he no longer has the use of his legs. He's too old and feeble to rise. You know how dogs are. If something's worth barking at, it's worth getting up to investigate. So the fact that the dog remains lying down suggests that it's not possible for him to stand up any more.

In the second line, an observer notes that he's known the dog ever since it was a young puppy. So he has witnessed the whole span of the dog's life. If he's known the animal its whole life, he probably loves it. How do you imagine he feels when he sees that the vigorous young creature he used to know is now old, weak, and near death?

It has been said that love and death are the two great subjects of poetry. Here we have a potent meditation on both in just two lines. Not bad.

Answer 2

The Span of Life changes the way you do things.