Tag Archives: Robert Frost

“The Pasture” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
  I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
 (And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
  I sha'n't be gone long.  -- You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf
  That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
  It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
  I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too.

“Fragmentary Blue” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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Why make so much of fragmentary blue
  In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
  Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
  When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet) ---
  Though some savants make earth include the sky;
  And blue so far above us comes so high,
  It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

“Gathering Leaves” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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Spades take up leaves
 No better than spoons,
 And bags full of leaves
 Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
 Of rustling all day
 Like rabbit and deer
 Running away.

But the mountains I raise
 Elude my embrace,
 Flowing over my arms
 And into my face.

I may load and unload
 Again and again
 Till I fill the whole shed,
 And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
 And since they grew duller
 From contact with the earth,
 Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use,
 But a crop is a crop,
 And who's to say where
 The harvest shall stop?

“Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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The way a crow
 Shook down on me
 The dust of snow
 From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
 A change in mood
 And saved some part 
 Of a day I had rued.

“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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I have been one acquainted with the night.
 I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
 I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
 I have passed by the watchman on his beat
 And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
 When far away an interrupted cry
 Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
 And further still at an unearthly height,
 One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
 I have been one acquainted with the night.

“Mowing” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
 And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.
 What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself;
 Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,
 Something, perhaps, about the lack of sound --
 And that was why it whispered and did not speak.
 It was no dream of the gift of idle hours,
 Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf: 
 Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak
 To the earnest love that laid the swale in rows,
 Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers
 (Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake.
 The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
 My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.

“Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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Some say the world will end in fire,
   Some say in ice.
 From what I've tasted of desire
   I hold with those who favor fire.
 But if it had to perish twice,
   I think I know enough of hate
     To say that for destruction ice
        Is also great
        And would suffice.

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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Nature's first green is gold,
 Her hardest hue to hold.
 Her early leaf's a flower;
 But only so an hour.
 Then leaf subsides to leaf.
 So Eden sank to grief,
 So dawn goes down to day.
 Nothing gold can stay.

BOOKS: “Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart” ed. by Jay Parini

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Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn by HeartRobert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart by Robert Frost
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: March 12, 2024

This book presents sixteen of Frost’s poems, each with a commentary on the poem, how events in Frost’s life influenced said poem, and assorted background details. It includes the “greatest hits” (e.g. “Mending Wall,” “The Road Not Taken,” “Fire and Ice,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,”) a few of Frost’s more obscure works, and a number that are in-between in status.

I found the commentaries to be interesting and readable, which is important as Frost’s poems are now in the public domain, and so the value of this volume hinges on Parini’s work. Parini includes some stories that offer insight into Frost’s mindset, as with the story of the lady who approached him after a reading to ask the meaning of “Fire and Ice.” Reading Frost isn’t like reading, say, Allen Ginsberg, the latter being one who put it all out there – unabashedly, Frost’s poetry is more guarded and deals more in nuanced metaphor. This makes a volume like this useful if it can offer any insight into the poet’s mindset, which I think Parini does.

I considered reading this book to be an opportunity to learn more about the poems and poet, and – therefore – did not heavily weight the stated theme of presenting poems that should be rote memorized. I mention this because I suspect Parini had other criteria in mind as well. While the book does include poems that are easily memorized (e.g. “Fire and Ice” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”) as well as poems that have messages worth learning by heart (e.g. “Mending Wall” and “The Road Not Taken,”) it also includes poems that aren’t so memorable because they are long, not especially lyrical, or not particularly filled with stand-out ideas or vivid imagery (e.g. “Directive,” “The Wood Pile,” and “Birches.”) This also begs the question, why one wouldn’t include a poem like “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” which is short, lyrical, and has an easily grasped message (i.e. easily memorized.)

As for ancillary matter, there is an appendix that offers tips for memorizing poems as well as a short “recommended reading” bibliography.

That said, I enjoyed reading this book; I got a lot out of Parini’s commentary, and I would recommend the book for poetry readers.

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The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
  And sorry I could not travel both 
 And be one traveler, long I stood
  And looked down one as far as I could
 To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,
  And having perhaps the better claim,
 Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
  Though as for that the passing there
 Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
  In leaves no step had trodden black.
 Oh, I kept the first for another day!
  Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
 I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
  Somewhere ages and ages hence:
 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
  I took the one less traveled by,
 And that has made all the difference.