Poems
by ROBERT FROST
A poet who spoke with the accent of New England to a listening England, where his first book, A Boy’s Will, was received with instant acclaim, ROBERT FROST, four times winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, is recognized here, as abroad, as one of America’s most eloquent voices. — THE EDITOR
SOMETHING FOR HOPE
AT the present rate it must come to pass
And that right soon that the meadow sweet
And steeple bush not good to eat
Will have crowded out the edible grass.
And that right soon that the meadow sweet
And steeple bush not good to eat
Will have crowded out the edible grass.
Then all there is to do is wait
For maple birch and spruce to push
Through meadow sweet and steeple bush
And crowd them out at a similar rate.
For maple birch and spruce to push
Through meadow sweet and steeple bush
And crowd them out at a similar rate.
No plough among these rocks would pay.
So busy yourself with other things
While the trees put on their wooden rings
And in long-sleeved branches hold their sway.
So busy yourself with other things
While the trees put on their wooden rings
And in long-sleeved branches hold their sway.
Then cut down the trees when lumber grown,
And there’s your pristine earth all freed
From lovely blooming but wasteful weed
And ready again for the grass to own.
And there’s your pristine earth all freed
From lovely blooming but wasteful weed
And ready again for the grass to own.
A cycle we’ll say of a hundred years.
Thus foresight does it and laissez faire,
A virtue in which wc all may share
Unless a government interferes.
Thus foresight does it and laissez faire,
A virtue in which wc all may share
Unless a government interferes.
Patience and looking away ahead,
And leaving some things to take their course.
Hope may not nourish a cow or horse
But spes alit agricolam, ‘tis said.
And leaving some things to take their course.
Hope may not nourish a cow or horse
But spes alit agricolam, ‘tis said.
HAEC FABULA DOCET
A BLINDMAN by the name of La Fontaine,
Relying on himself and on his cane,
Came tap-tap-tapping down the village street,
The apogee of human blind conceit.
Now just ahead of him was seen to yawn
A trench where water pipes were laying on.
The Blindman might have found it with his ferrule,
But someone overanxious at his peril
Not only warned him with a loud command,
But ran against him with a staying hand.
Enraged at what he could but think officious,
The Blindman missed him with a blow so vicious
He gave his own poor iliac a wrench
And plunged himself head foremost in the trench:
Where with a glee no less for being grim
The workmen all turned to and buried him.
Relying on himself and on his cane,
Came tap-tap-tapping down the village street,
The apogee of human blind conceit.
Now just ahead of him was seen to yawn
A trench where water pipes were laying on.
The Blindman might have found it with his ferrule,
But someone overanxious at his peril
Not only warned him with a loud command,
But ran against him with a staying hand.
Enraged at what he could but think officious,
The Blindman missed him with a blow so vicious
He gave his own poor iliac a wrench
And plunged himself head foremost in the trench:
Where with a glee no less for being grim
The workmen all turned to and buried him.
MORAL
The moral is it hardly need be shown,
All those who try to go it sole alone,
Too proud to be beholden for relief,
Are absolutely sure to come to grief.
All those who try to go it sole alone,
Too proud to be beholden for relief,
Are absolutely sure to come to grief.
VARIANTLT:
The moral is it hardly need be shown,
All those who try to go it sole alone,
Or with the independence of Vermont,
Are absolutely sure to come to want.
All those who try to go it sole alone,
Or with the independence of Vermont,
Are absolutely sure to come to want.
A ROGERS GROUP
How young and unassuming
They waited in the street,
With babies in their arms
And baggage at their feet.
They waited in the street,
With babies in their arms
And baggage at their feet.
A trolley car they hailed
Went by with clanging gong
Before they guessed the corner
They waited on was wrong.
Went by with clanging gong
Before they guessed the corner
They waited on was wrong.
And no one told them so
By way of traveller’s aid,
No one was so far touched
By the Rogers Group they made.
By way of traveller’s aid,
No one was so far touched
By the Rogers Group they made.
THE INGENUITIES OF DEBT
THESE I assume were words so deeply meant
They cut themselves in stone for permanent
Liike trouble in the brow above the eyes:
“Take Care to Sell Your Horse before He Dies.
The Art of Life Is Passing Losses on.”
The city saying it was Ctesiphon,
Which may a little while by war and trade
Have kept from being caught with the decayed,
Infirm, worn-out, and broken on its hands,
But judging by what little of it stands,
Not even the ingenuities of debt
Could save it from its losses being met.
Sand has been thrusting in the square of door
Across the tessellation of the floor
And only rests a serpent on its chin
Content with contemplating, taking in
Till it can muster breath inside a hall
To rear against the inscription on the wall
They cut themselves in stone for permanent
Liike trouble in the brow above the eyes:
“Take Care to Sell Your Horse before He Dies.
The Art of Life Is Passing Losses on.”
The city saying it was Ctesiphon,
Which may a little while by war and trade
Have kept from being caught with the decayed,
Infirm, worn-out, and broken on its hands,
But judging by what little of it stands,
Not even the ingenuities of debt
Could save it from its losses being met.
Sand has been thrusting in the square of door
Across the tessellation of the floor
And only rests a serpent on its chin
Content with contemplating, taking in
Till it can muster breath inside a hall
To rear against the inscription on the wall
U S 1946 KING’S X
HAVING invented a new Holocaust,
And been the first with it to win a war,
How they make haste to cry with fingers crossed,
King’s X — no fairs to use it any more!
And been the first with it to win a war,
How they make haste to cry with fingers crossed,
King’s X — no fairs to use it any more!
THE PLANNERS
IF anything should put an end to This,
I’m thinking the unborn would never miss
What they had never had of vital bliss.
No burst of nuclear phenomenon
That put an end to what was going on
Could make much difference to the dead and gone.
Only a few of those even in whose day
It happened would have very much to say.
And anyone might ask them who were they.
Who would they be? The guild of social planners
With the intention blazoned on their banners
Of getting one more chance to change our manners?
These anyway might think it was important
That human history should not be shortened.
I’m thinking the unborn would never miss
What they had never had of vital bliss.
No burst of nuclear phenomenon
That put an end to what was going on
Could make much difference to the dead and gone.
Only a few of those even in whose day
It happened would have very much to say.
And anyone might ask them who were they.
Who would they be? The guild of social planners
With the intention blazoned on their banners
Of getting one more chance to change our manners?
These anyway might think it was important
That human history should not be shortened.
TO AN ANCIENT
YOUR claims to immortality were two.
The one you made, the other one you grew.
Sorry to have no name for you but You.
The one you made, the other one you grew.
Sorry to have no name for you but You.
We never knew exactly where to look,
But found one in the delta of a brook,
One in a cavern where you used to cook.
But found one in the delta of a brook,
One in a cavern where you used to cook.
Coming on such an ancient human trace
Seems as expressive of the human race
As meeting someone living face to face.
Seems as expressive of the human race
As meeting someone living face to face.
We date you by your depth in silt and dust
Your probable brute nature is discussed.
At which point we are totally non-plussed.
Your probable brute nature is discussed.
At which point we are totally non-plussed.
You made the eolith, you grew the bone,
The second more peculiarly your own,
And likely to have been enough alone.
The second more peculiarly your own,
And likely to have been enough alone.
You make me ask if I would go to time,
Would I gain anything by using rhyme?
Or aren’t the bones enough I live to lime?
Would I gain anything by using rhyme?
Or aren’t the bones enough I live to lime?