Episode 128: Poems by Robert Frost and Wendell Berry

Lucky Words

These two poems are favorites of mine (aren't they all?), and I love the way the comment on each other. I discussed mostly how Wendell Berry's poem seems to be deeply antisocial but, upon some reflection, really isn't. But there's a lot more to say than just this.

If you've got a minute, stop what you're doing and just think about these two poems for a couple of minutes. It won't take long. If nothing comes to mind after a brief pause, then just go back to what you're doing, at least you had a break. But you might choose to think about how Berry's poem depends upon Frost's well-known poem first. You might think about what the farm imagery is intended to communicate: a simple life perhaps, or maybe how hard work helps a person think. You might think about how these poems create the sense of slowness and deliberateness, even though they are so short. Or you might just think about what work makes you feel fulfilled, and whether you like to have company or whether you like to be alone. Perhaps you like one at some times, and the other at others.

As I recorded this, I thought I might like to be with some other people, and then I realized that the other people weren't there to hike, and then I decided I would rather be alone.

TEXT OF POEMS

“The Pasture”

by Robert Frost

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.

“Stay Home”

by Wendell Berry

I will wait here in the fields
to see how well the rain
brings on the grass.
In the labor of the fields
longer than a man’s life
I am at home. Don’t come with me.
You stay home too.

I will be standing in the woods
where the old trees
move only with the wind
and then with gravity.
In the stillness of the trees
I am at home. Don’t come with me.
You stay home too.