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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON THE HEART'S BEGINNING TO CLOUD THE MIND, by ROBERT FROST Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Something I saw or thought I saw Last Line: Far into the lives of other folk Subject(s): Marriage; Railroads; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Railways; Trains | |||
Something I saw or thought I saw In the desert at midnight in Utah, Looking out of my lower berth At moonht sky and moonlit earth. The sky had here and there a star; The earth had a single light afar, A flickering, human pathetic light, That was maintained against the nIght, It seemed to me, by the people there, With a God-forsaken brute despair. It would Hutter and fall in half an hour Like the last petal off a Hower. But my heart was beginning to cloud my mind. I knew a tale of a better kmd. That far light flickers because of trees. The people can bum it as long as they please: And when their interests in it end, They can leave it to someone else to tend. Come back that way a summer hence, I should find it no more no less intense. I pass, but scarcely pass no doubt, When one will say, ~Let us put it out.' The other Without demur agrees. They can keep it burning as long as they please, They can put it out whenever they please. One looks out last from the darkened room At the shiny desert with spots of gloom That might be people and are but cedar, Have no purpose, have no leader, Have never made the first move to assemble, And so are nothing to make her tremble. She can think of places that are not thus Without indulgmg a 'Not for us!' LIfe is not so sinIster-grave. Matter of fact has made them brave. He IS husband, she is wife. She fears not hun, they fear not hfe. They know where another hght has been And more than one to theirs akIn, But earlier out for bed tomght, So lost on me in my surface flight. Tills I saw when wakmg late, Going by at a railroad rate, Looking through wreaths of engme smoke Far into the hves of other folk. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RAILWAY by ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON WHAT WE DID TO WHAT WE WERE by PHILIP LEVINE BURYING GROUND BY THE TIES by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH WAY-STATION by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH TWILIGHT TRAIN by EILEEN MYLES THE CAVEMAN ON THE TRAIN by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS |
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