Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A WINTER EDEN, by ROBERT FROST


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A WINTER EDEN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A winter garden in an alder swamp
Last Line: To make it worth life’s while to wake and sport
Subject(s): Winter; Gardens & Gardening


It's not that I don't like the hospital.
A winter garden in an alder swamp,
Those small bouquets of flowers, pert and brave.
Where conies now come out to sun and romp,
The smell of antiseptic cleaners.
As near a paradise as it can be
The ill, so wistful in their rooms, so true.
And not melt snow or start a dormant tree.
My friend, the one who's dying, took me out

To where the patients go to smoke, IV's
It lifts existence on a plane of snow
And oxygen tanks attached to them-
One level higher than the earth below,
A tiny patio for skeletons. We shared
One level nearer heaven overhead,
A cigarette, which was delicious but
And last year's berries shining scarlet red.
Too brief. I held his hand; it felt

Like someone's keys. How beautiful it was,
It lifts a gaunt luxuriating beast
The sunlight pointing down at us, as if
Where he can stretch and hold his highest feat
We were important, full of life, unbound.
On some wild apple tree's young tender bark,
I wandered for a moment where his ribs
What well may prove the year's high girdle mark.
Had made a space for me, and there, beside

The thundering waterfall of his heart,
So near to paradise, all pairing ends:
I rubbed my eyes and thought, "I'm lost."
Here loveless birds now flock as winter friends,

Content with bud-inspecting. They presume

To say which buds are leaf and which are bloom.

A feather-hammer gives a double knock.
This Eden day is done at two o'clock.
An hour of winter day might seem too short
To make it worth life's while to wake and sport.






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