Frost begins the poem with a contrast that is precise and man-made, sitting indoors and talking ''of the cold outside." The precarious nature of the warmth and comfort which the subjects of the poem find within their house is emphasized by the gusts of wind. Even so, they are reasonably certain of their safety. The absolute dichotomy between inside and outside is the type of precise distinction with which people feel comfortable. Nature, on the other hand, recognizes:

That though there is no fixed line between wrong and right,

There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed.

In "There Are Roughly Zones," Robert Frost seeks to mock human arrogance in our approach to nature. The peach tree is the central character in this poem. The humans who planted it in this place, too far north for it to survive, hide indoors where they can deny the realities of nature where they've chosen to live. The peach tree cannot.

Frost points out the ways that these humans will stubbornly blame the wind for killing the tree if it dies in the night's cold wind, as though the wind can betray them for simply being as it has always been. To Frost, the blame actually lies squarely on the people. This northern place is the wind's home, and so it is not the home of the peach tree, and that is simply a truth that cannot be questioned or changed.

In "There are Roughly Zones" Frost explores man's tension with nature. Man always wishes to fight against the boundaries of nature, and often he successfully does so, but sometimes he overreaches himself. The two fight each other, and man's will and determination contends with nature's sheer power.

The opening lines begin by saying "We sit indoors and talk of the cold outside./ And every gust that gathers strength and heaves /Is a threat to the house" (lines 1–3). Already, the conflict between man and nature is established. The people inside discuss an aspect of nature that is undesirable, and the wind fights against the house that people built to fortify themselves against it.

In the next few lines, the people inside think of the way that they have tried to change nature itself. They have a fruit tree that they are worried about. The text says "We think of the tree..../it is very far north, we admit, to have brought the peach" (lines 4-6). The people here care about something that comes from the natural world, but they have attempted to bring it out of its natural habitat, and they have put it in a place that threatens its existence.

The poem considers why man always struggles against nature. It says "what comes over a man, is it soul or mind / That to no limits and bounds he can stay confined?" (lines 7–8). Man's ambition will not allow him to rest or be content with the way the natural world exists. Although "there is no fixed line between wrong and right, / There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed" (lines 12–13). In other words, there is no clear boundary about what man can and can't do about nature, but there are some areas that clearly ought to be impossible.

The poem concludes by saying:

The tree has no leaves and may never have them again.

We must wait till some months hence in the spring to know.

But if it is destined never again to grow,

It can blame this limitless trait in the hearts of men.