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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE THATCH, by ROBERT FROST Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Out alone in the winter rain Last Line: In on to the upper chamber floors. Subject(s): Birds' Nests; Grief; Rain; Roofing & Roofers; Straw; Sorrow; Sadness | |||
Out alone in the winter rain, Intent on giving and taking pain. But never was I far out of sight Of a certain upper-window light. The light was what it was all about: I would not go in till the light went out; It would not go out till I came in. Well, we should see which one would win, We should see which one would be first to yield. The world as a black invisible field. The rain by right was snow for cold. The wind was another layer of mold. But the strangest thing: in the thick old thatch, Where summer birds had been given hatch, Had fed in chorus, and lived to fledge, Some still were living in hermitage. And as I passed along the eaves, So low I brushed the straw with my sleeves, I flushed the birds out of hole after hole, Into the darkness. It grieved my soul, It started a grief within a grief, To think their case was beyond relief -- They could not go flying about in search Of their nest again, nor find a perch. They must brood where they fell in mulch and mire, Trusting feathers and inward fire Till daylight made it safe for a flyer. My greater grief was by so much reduced As I thought of them without nest or roost. That was how that grief started to melt. They tell me the cottage where we dwelt, Its wind-torn thatch goes now unmended; Its life of hundreds of years has ended By letting the rain I knew outdoors In on to the upper chamber floors. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS |
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