Poetry I Wish I Could Write: Robert Frost

Robert Frost is one of my all-time favorites. Not only does he use nature a lot in his poems, his rhythm and pace just really appeal to me, with a mix of serious and lighthearted poems. His classics of course are The Road Not Taken, Mending Wall, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (one of my favorite of Frost's). Here are some other that you may not be familiar with. The very last line of this post may be my favorite line of poetry ever in the history of ever-ness:

----

Acquainted with the Night

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,

A luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

----

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour 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.

----

A Minor Bird

I have wished a bird would fly away,

And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door

When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.

The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong

In wanting to silence any song.

----

Frost wrote his own epitaph:

And were an epitaph be my story

I'd have a short one ready for my own

I would have written of me on my stone

I had a lover's quarrel with the world.