He asked if I would sell my
Christmas
trees;
My woods--the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
My woods--the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
Robert Forst
gutenberg.
org
Title: Mountain Interval
Author: Robert Frost
Release Date: July 7, 2009 [EBook #29345]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNTAIN INTERVAL ***
Produced by David Starner, Katherine Ward and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net
[Illustration: ROBERT FROST
From the original in plaster by AROLDO DU CHENE
_Copyright, Henry Holt and Company_]
MOUNTAIN INTERVAL
BY
ROBERT FROST
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1916, 1921
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
_May, 1931_
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY, N. J.
* * * * *
TO YOU
WHO LEAST NEED REMINDING
that before this interval of the South Branch under black
mountains, there was another interval, the Upper at Plymouth,
where we walked in spring beyond the covered bridge; but that
the first interval of all was the old farm, our brook interval,
so called by the man we had it from in sale.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN 9
CHRISTMAS TREES 11
AN OLD MAN'S WINTER NIGHT 14
A PATCH OF OLD SNOW 15
IN THE HOME STRETCH 16
THE TELEPHONE 24
MEETING AND PASSING 25
HYLA BROOK 26
THE OVEN BIRD 27
BOND AND FREE 28
BIRCHES 29
PEA BRUSH 31
PUTTING IN THE SEED 32
A TIME TO TALK 33
THE COW IN APPLE TIME 34
AN ENCOUNTER 35
RANGE-FINDING 36
THE HILL WIFE 37
I LONELINESS--HER WORD 37
II HOUSE FEAR 37
III THE SMILE--HER WORD 38
IV THE OFT-REPEATED DREAM 38
V THE IMPULSE 39
THE BONFIRE 41
A GIRL'S GARDEN 45
THE EXPOSED NEST 48
"OUT, OUT--" 50
BROWN'S DESCENT OR THE WILLY-NILLY SLIDE 52
THE GUM-GATHERER 56
THE LINE-GANG 58
THE VANISHING RED 59
SNOW 61
THE SOUND OF THE TREES 75
_THE ROAD NOT TAKEN_
_Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;_
_Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,_
_And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. _
_I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. _
CHRISTMAS TREES
(_A Christmas Circular Letter_)
The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,
Yet did in country fashion in that there
He sat and waited till he drew us out
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods--the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn't thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.
I'd hate to have them know it if I was.
Yet more I'd hate to hold my trees except
As others hold theirs or refuse for them,
Beyond the time of profitable growth,
The trial by market everything must come to.
I dallied so much with the thought of selling.
Then whether from mistaken courtesy
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether
From hope of hearing good of what was mine,
I said, "There aren't enough to be worth while. "
"I could soon tell how many they would cut,
You let me look them over. "
"You could look.
But don't expect I'm going to let you have them. "
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few
Quite solitary and having equal boughs
All round and round. The latter he nodded "Yes" to,
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,
With a buyer's moderation, "That would do. "
I thought so too, but wasn't there to say so.
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,
And came down on the north.
He said, "A thousand. "
"A thousand Christmas trees!
Title: Mountain Interval
Author: Robert Frost
Release Date: July 7, 2009 [EBook #29345]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNTAIN INTERVAL ***
Produced by David Starner, Katherine Ward and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net
[Illustration: ROBERT FROST
From the original in plaster by AROLDO DU CHENE
_Copyright, Henry Holt and Company_]
MOUNTAIN INTERVAL
BY
ROBERT FROST
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1916, 1921
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
_May, 1931_
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY, N. J.
* * * * *
TO YOU
WHO LEAST NEED REMINDING
that before this interval of the South Branch under black
mountains, there was another interval, the Upper at Plymouth,
where we walked in spring beyond the covered bridge; but that
the first interval of all was the old farm, our brook interval,
so called by the man we had it from in sale.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN 9
CHRISTMAS TREES 11
AN OLD MAN'S WINTER NIGHT 14
A PATCH OF OLD SNOW 15
IN THE HOME STRETCH 16
THE TELEPHONE 24
MEETING AND PASSING 25
HYLA BROOK 26
THE OVEN BIRD 27
BOND AND FREE 28
BIRCHES 29
PEA BRUSH 31
PUTTING IN THE SEED 32
A TIME TO TALK 33
THE COW IN APPLE TIME 34
AN ENCOUNTER 35
RANGE-FINDING 36
THE HILL WIFE 37
I LONELINESS--HER WORD 37
II HOUSE FEAR 37
III THE SMILE--HER WORD 38
IV THE OFT-REPEATED DREAM 38
V THE IMPULSE 39
THE BONFIRE 41
A GIRL'S GARDEN 45
THE EXPOSED NEST 48
"OUT, OUT--" 50
BROWN'S DESCENT OR THE WILLY-NILLY SLIDE 52
THE GUM-GATHERER 56
THE LINE-GANG 58
THE VANISHING RED 59
SNOW 61
THE SOUND OF THE TREES 75
_THE ROAD NOT TAKEN_
_Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;_
_Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,_
_And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. _
_I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. _
CHRISTMAS TREES
(_A Christmas Circular Letter_)
The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,
Yet did in country fashion in that there
He sat and waited till he drew us out
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods--the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn't thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.
I'd hate to have them know it if I was.
Yet more I'd hate to hold my trees except
As others hold theirs or refuse for them,
Beyond the time of profitable growth,
The trial by market everything must come to.
I dallied so much with the thought of selling.
Then whether from mistaken courtesy
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether
From hope of hearing good of what was mine,
I said, "There aren't enough to be worth while. "
"I could soon tell how many they would cut,
You let me look them over. "
"You could look.
But don't expect I'm going to let you have them. "
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few
Quite solitary and having equal boughs
All round and round. The latter he nodded "Yes" to,
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,
With a buyer's moderation, "That would do. "
I thought so too, but wasn't there to say so.
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,
And came down on the north.
He said, "A thousand. "
"A thousand Christmas trees!
