Saturday, November 21, 2009

A poem of a lifetime from Robert Frost

One of my most favorite poems ever. Beautifully evocative, and with a hauntingness to it, like Wordsworth's The Solitary Reaper. This poem was hemmed into me since middle school. I studied at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Coimbatore before moving to Mani HSS and interestingly the correspondent for both these schools at that time was Chinnaswamy Naidu, a person of wonderful elocution. He used to end each of his speeches with the last 4 lines of this poem which are just engraved into my brain. Whenever I read this poem, my eyes well up for no particular reason and which I let be.


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.


My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.


He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.


The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

8 comments:

Savitha said...

My favorite poem.....Though we learnt a decade before, it touches even now!One another poem is the road not taken, and the topnotch of all these is the "If" poem!Thanks for sharing this!!

RamNarayanS said...

Thanks Savitha for the memories. Reading some of these beautiful poems makes me want to go back to school. :-)

Swaram said...

Aww .. one of my all-time fav poems :) Thanks for sharing RamMmm :)

RamNarayanS said...

Thanks and you are welcome, Swaram.

gils said...

i always tell this..wenever i come to office...so tht i dnt fall asleep here...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

RamNarayanS said...

Enna gils, your office is in the midst of a forest? Or you come into work after a looonnng drive which makes you sleeeepy? :-)

gils said...

uhummm...physics book ku aduthabadia...enaku semmaya thookam varam edam en opice thaan :D but come to think of it..its in midst of a forest and drive is reaaaaalllly loonngg!!!

RamNarayanS said...

Why are you bringing the poor Physics book into this? :-) (Feynman's Lectures on Physics book ellaam use pannaliyaa?) Even when I was going to Electronics City at my earlier company, I couldn't manage a wink because I was driving (ha ha ha, mokkai) and before that because I could not sleep because the bus crawls at 1st gear. Naan ellam kaalankaarthaala ezhundhirukkura jaadhiyey illai, unless and absolutely and forcefully I have to. :-)