Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DOES NO ONE AT ALL EVER FEEL THIS WAY IN THE LEAST?, by ROBERT FROST


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DOES NO ONE AT ALL EVER FEEL THIS WAY IN THE LEAST?, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O ocean sea for all your being vast
Last Line: And telling them how sinbad was a sailor
Subject(s): Sea; Ocean


O ocean sea, for all your being vast,
Your separation of us from the Old
That should have made the New
World newly great
Would only disappoint us at the last
If it should not do anything foretold
To make us different in a single trait.
his though we took the Indian name for maize
And changed it to the English name for wheat.
It seemed to comfort us to call it corn.
And so with homesickness in many ways
We sought however crudely to defeat
Our chance of being people newly born.
And now, O sea, you're lost by aeroplane.
Our sailors ride a bullet for a boat.
Our coverage of distance is so facile
It makes us to have had a sea in vain.
Our moat around us is no more a moat,
Grind shells, O futile sea, grind empty shells
For all the use you are along the strand
I cannot hold you innocent of fault.
Spring water in our mountain bosom swells
To pour fresh rivers on you from the land,
Till you have lost the savor of your salt.
I pick a dead shell up from where the kelp
Lies in a windrow, brittle-dry and black,
And holding it far forward for a symbol
I cry, "Do you work for women-all the help
I ask of you. Grind this I throw you back
Into a lady's finger ring or thimble."
The ocean had been spoken to before.
But if it had no thought of paying heed
To taunt of mine I knew a place to go
Where I need listen to its rote no more,
Nor taste its salt, nor smell its fish and weed
Nor be reminded of them in a blow -
So far inland the very name of ocean
Goes mentionless except in baby-school
When teacher's own experiences fail her
And she can only give the class a notion
Of what it is by calling it a pool
And telling them how Sinbad was a sailor.






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