Robert Frost1874–1963I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.
A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.
BBC Interview with Cecil Day Lewis (13 September 1957); transcripts published in “It Takes a Hero to Make a Poem” in the Claremont Quarterly (Spring 1958)Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.The Death of the Hired Man (1914), North of Boston (1914)In context- A Boy’s Will (1913, 1915), Mowing
It is the future that creates his present.
All is an interminable chain of longing.In the Clearing (1962), “Escapist — Never”Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.
Address at Milton Academy, Massachusetts (May 17, 1935)Courage is of the heart by derivation,
And great it is. But fear is of the soul.A Masque of Mercy (1947)Men work together,” I told him from the heart,
“Whether they work together or apart.A Boy’s Will (1913, 1915)Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.
Letter to Louis Untermeyer (July 8, 1915)- “The Gift Outright”, originally recited it at the College of William & Mary in 1941; first published in the Virginia Quarterly Review (Spring 1942)
Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.Steeple Bush (1947), “Directive”, l. 55- Fire and Ice (1920), New Hampshire (1923), Fire and IceIn context
- A Witness Tree (1942)
