Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Frost was honoured frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution." He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named poet laureate of Vermont. (Wikipedia)
Read more from Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken and other Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5West-Running Brook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Road Not Taken and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Poems of Robert Frost: Illustrated Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Hampshire: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great American Poets: New Hampshire, Tender Buttons, Select Poems, and Selected Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Not Taken and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Christmas Stories: 120+ Authors, 250+ Magical Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Poems (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Witness Tree Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Further Range Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Masque of Reason Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Road Not Taken with Fire and Ice: and 96 other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Boy’s Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Hampshire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ultimate Christmas Library: 100+ Authors, 200 Novels, Novellas, Stories, Poems and Carols Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew Hampshire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5North of Boston Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Hampshire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to North of Boston
Related ebooks
North of Boston Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Poems (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Not Taken and other Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Search for the Unicorns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMountain Interval Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnd Berry Came Too Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Like A Mountain, Waiting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lady of the Aroostook Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Powers and Maxine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSon of Saul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVery Short Stories and Verses For Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHair of Gold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Minister's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Road to Redemption Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nursery, December 1873, Vol. XIV. No. 6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Life of William Shakespeare: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nursery, May 1877, Vol. XXI. No. 5 A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Scrimshaw Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs the hart panteth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlain Mary Smith: A Romance of Red Saunders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Execution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Face Tree Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jester of Nottingham Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gates Ajar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Green Orb of Boltonia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Game for Old Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Deer Mouse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Million Dollar Mystery: Novelized from the Scenario of F. Lonergan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for North of Boston
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I am not a big fan of Frost's longer poems, which feel to me like poetic short stories, and they are the majority of this collection. It does include "Mending Wall", which I like a lot, and I also liked "The Good Hour" which was new to me.
Book preview
North of Boston - Robert Frost
The Project Gutenberg EBook of North of Boston, by Robert Frost
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: North of Boston
Author: Robert Frost
Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3026]
Last Updated: January 26, 2013
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH OF BOSTON ***
Produced by David Reed, and David Widger
NORTH OF BOSTON
By Robert Frost
TO
E. M. F.
THIS BOOK OF PEOPLE
CONTENTS
The Pasture
Mending Wall
The Death of the Hired Man
The Mountain
A Hundred Collars
Home Burial
The Black Cottage
Blueberries
A Servant to Servants
After Apple-picking
The Code
The Generations of Men
The Housekeeper
The Fear
The Self-seeker
The Wood-pile
Good Hours
The Pasture
I'M going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.
Mending Wall
SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
Stay where you are until our backs are turned!
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, Good fences make good neighbours.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down. I could say
Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, Good fences make good neighbours.
The Death of the Hired Man
MARY sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table
Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step,
She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage
To meet him in the doorway with the news
And put him on his guard. Silas is back.
She pushed him outward with her through the door
And shut it after her. Be kind,
she said.
She took the market things from Warren's arms
And set them on the porch, then drew him down
To sit beside her on the wooden steps.
"When was I ever anything but kind to him?
But I'll not have the fellow back," he said.
"I told him so last haying, didn't I?
'If he left then,' I said, 'that ended it.'
What good is he? Who else will harbour him
At his age for the little he can do?
What help he is there's no depending on.
Off he goes always when I need him most.
'He thinks he ought to earn a little pay,
Enough at least to buy tobacco with,
So he won't have to beg and be beholden.'
'All right,' I say, 'I can't afford to pay
Any fixed wages, though I wish I could.'
'Someone else can.' 'Then someone else will have to.'
I shouldn't mind his bettering himself
If that was what it was. You can be certain,
When he begins like that, there's someone at him
Trying to coax him off with pocket-money,—
In haying time, when any help is scarce.
In winter he comes back to us. I'm done."
Sh! not so loud: he'll hear you,
Mary said.
I want him to: he'll have to soon or late.
"He's worn out. He's asleep beside the stove.
When I came up from Rowe's I found him here,
Huddled against the barn-door fast asleep,
A miserable sight, and frightening, too—
You needn't smile—I didn't recognise him—
I wasn't looking for him—and he's changed.
Wait till you see."
Where did you say he'd been?
"He didn't say. I dragged him to the house,
And gave him tea and tried to make him smoke.
I tried to make him talk about his travels.
Nothing would do: he just kept nodding off."
What did he say? Did he say anything?
But little.
"Anything? Mary, confess
He said he'd come to ditch the meadow for me."
Warren!