Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BEARER OF EVIL TIDINGS, by ROBERT FROST


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BEARER OF EVIL TIDINGS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
Last Line: What soon enough he would know?
Subject(s): Messages & Messengers


The bearer of evu tidIngs,
When he was halfway there,
RClnembered that evil tidings
Were a dangerous thing to bear.

So when he came to the parting
Where one road led to the throne
And one went off to the mountains
And into the wild unknown,

He took the one to the mountains.
He ran through the Vale of Cashmere,
He ran through the rhododendrons
Till he came to the land of Pamir.

And there in a precipice valley
A girl of his age he met
Took him home to her bower,
Or he might be running yet.

She taught him her tribe's religion:
How ages and ages SInce
A princess en route from China
To marry a Persian prince

Had been found with child; and her army
Had come to a troubled halt.
And though a god was the father
And nobody else at fault,

It had seemed discreet to remain there
And neIther go on nor back.
So they stayed and declared a village
There in the land of the Yak.

And the child that came of the pnncess
Estabhshed a royal line,
And lus mandates were gIven heed to
Because he was born divIne

And that was why there were people
On one Himalayan shelf;
And the bearer of evIl tidmgs
Decided to stay there hImself.

At least he had this ill common
WIth the race he chose to adopt:
They had both of them had theIr reasons
For stopping where they had stopped.

As for his evil tidings,
Belshazzar's overthrow,
Why hurry to tell Belshazzar,
What soon enough he would know?






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