Frost uses personification to describe the "resurrected tree" under which the poem's speaker sits and rests. The speaker identifies the tree using the male pronoun "he" and notes that its position suggests that it has "halted," "As if for fear of treading upon me."
It is reasonable to infer that the tree has been cut down and metaphorically "resurrected" as a telephone pole. It is described as being "barkless" and holding up wires "with something in it from men to men." Because the speaker is talking to the telephone pole, Frost uses apostrophe, since the pole is an inanimate object.
Because the poem consists of sentences that continue over several lines, Frost has utilized the technique of enjambment.
And lastly, because the speaker asks the telephone pole where it is off to, Frost utilizes the pathetic fallacy as if it can answer whether or not is is "off to Montreal," as the speaker suggests.
Robert Frost's "An Encounter" is a poem about the speaker travelling in nature and coming across a tree that he then addresses. The poem's major literary devices are enjambment, imagery, and personification.
The first part of the poem is two long sentences that continue over the course of several lines. We see end punctuation (periods) in the middle of line 5 and the middle of line 14. Theses are examples of enjambment, as the thought continues to flow over the course of many lines, only stopping in the middle of another line (in this case, 5 and 14). The content of these lines includes the speaker's description of the weather and the environment. He uses imagery and sensory detail to convey how he feels as he goes through the landscape. He is "half boring through, half climbing through / A swamp of cedar" (4-5). He feels "choked," "weary and over-heated," and "sorry" to have strayed from familiar territory (5-7). Toward the end of this section, the speaker has his "encounter" with a tree. The tree is described using imagery and personification. In lines 11–14, the speaker says:
There against the blue,
Stood over me a resurrected tree,
A tree that had been down and raised again—
A barkless spectre.
As he looks up at the sky, he sees "a resurrected tree," a "barkless spectre." The tree is strange and otherworldly. He continues to describe the tree using personification when he writes,
He had halted too,
As if for fear of treading upon me.
I saw the strange position of his hands—
Up at his shoulders (14–17).
The tree is given human body parts, feelings, and abilities. The speaker thinks the tree is like him and that they each have stopped upon seeing one another. He and the tree both feel hesitant to "tread upon" one other. The tree is described as having hands and shoulders, like a human. The speaker then uses quoted dialogue to speak directly to the tree. He asks the tree, "What's the news you carry?" and tells the tree where he is going. The poem ends with the speaker telling the tree he is "half looking" for a type of orchid. This recalls his "half boring" and "half climbing" from the beginning of the poem. The speaker suggests that he is sort of looking for particular features of the environment but also wandering and seeing what he comes across. In this case, he has a strange encounter with a tree.
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