Going for Water
Robert Frost
The well was dry beside the door,
And so we went with pail and can
Across the fields behind the house
To seek the brook if it still ran;
Not loth to have excuse to go,
Because the autumn eve was fair
(Though chill), because the fields were ours,
And by the brook our woods were there.
We ran as if to meet the moon
That slowly danced behind the trees,
The barren boughs without the leaves,
Without the birds, without the breeze.
But once within the wood, we paused
Like gnomes that hid us from the moon,
Ready to run to hiding new,
With laughter when she found us soon.
Each on the other a staying hand
To listen ere we dared to look,
And in the hush we joined to make
We heard, we knew we heard the brook
A note as from a single place,
A slender tinkling fall that made
Now drops that floated on the pool
Like pearls and now a silver blade.
This is why Frost is so good, lines like these:
...And in the hush we joined to make
We heard, we knew we heard the brook
My mom was an English major, so we heard lots of Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson growing up; they must have been favorites. I was just thinking that other day that I "need" to get some books of their poetry because I can't run around quoting it like my mom did. (Well, maybe I remember, "I'm nobody, who are you?")
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