In both “Birches” by Robert Frost and “History of Desire” by Tony Hoagland the reoccurring themes in these two poems are remembering, reflecting, and pondering, but can also all be linked by the common act of questioning. In each poem the author discusses a memory thy either question the outcome of or regretting the decision all together. The use of dialogue contributes to the interpretation of the two poems by allowing the reader to relate to the issues being questioned within the context. For example in “History of Desire” by Tony Hoagland, “when you’re seventeen, and drunk/on the husky late night flavor/of your first girlfriends voice/along the wires of the telephone/what else to do but steal/your fathers El Dorado from the drive/and cruise out to the park on Driscoll Hill?” (lines 1-7) It makes the reader think back to their time of being seventeen, and even if they cant recall stealing their fathers car,…show more content… And questioning why those events happened in the first place. In “Birches” by Robert Frost there are some examples of the author questioning things but not in exactly the same way that Tony Hoagland did in “History of Desire”. The main difference is that Frost doesn't seem to question past like Hoagland does. An example of this is “toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more.” (line 56) The way Frost italicized the work “toward” could make you question whether or not he truly believes that there is a heaven. The last example is “when I see birches bend to left and right/across the lines of straighter darker trees./I like to think some boys been swinging them.” (lines 1-3) This case he seems to be reflecting to a time where he may have done that as a child. The common theme that Frost is conveying is possibly a time in his life where he may have felt lost. And he is questioning why and how he felt that