Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WALL, by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN Poet's Biography First Line: Not love a wall Last Line: How well I love the wall! Subject(s): Walls | ||||||||
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall" ROBERT FROST "NOT love a wall!" I sit above the meadow in the glowing fall, Tracing the gray redoubt from square to square That bounds the acres harvest-ripe and fair. And wonder if it's true? Nay! Ask the sumac and the teeming vine That lean upon the boulders; The crimsoning ivy and the wild woodbine, Whose eager fingers clutch the stony shoulders; The golden-rod, the aster, and the rue. Ask the red squirrel with the chubby cheek Skipping from stone to stone By a quick route, his hidden hoard to seek, Making the little viaduct his own. Look where the woodchuck lifts a cautious head Between the rocks, close by the cabbage bed; The honey-bees have built a secret hive In a forgotten chink; And there a gray cocoon is tucked away, Shrouding a miracle of mauve and pink To wait its Easter Day. The wall with pageantry is all alive. And I who gaze On the dark border here, Drawn like a ribbon round the pasture-ways, Embroidered with the glory of the year -- What is the wall to me? Has it no beauty more than eyes can see? Lo, I remember how in days of old A grandsire toiled with weariness and pain To dig the clumsy boulders from the mould; Piled them in ordered rows again, Fitting them firm and fast, A monument to last Long after his own harried day was past. He cleared the rocky soil for corn and grain By which his children throve To carry on the race. We live by his life-giving. I see each stone, rough like his granite face -- Uncompromising, stern, no slave to love, Dowered with little grace, Grim with the hard, unjoyful task of living; But strong to stand the wrath of storm and time, And bolts that heaven lets fall. Built of a patriot's prime -- How well I love the wall! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LIFE OF TOWNS: TOWN OF THE WRONG QUESTIONS by ANNE CARSON COMES WINTER, THE SEA HUNTING by NORMAN DUBIE ATMOSPHERE; INSCRIPTION FOR A GARDEN WALL by ROBERT FROST UP AGAINST IT by ELEANOR WILNER BARTLEBY AT THE WALL by JACK GILBERT WALLS by WILLIAM HERVEY ALLEN JR. A CHARM SAID UNDER AN OAK by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN |
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