A Hillside Thaw | |
by Robert Frost | |
TO think to know the country and not know | |
The hillside on the day the sun lets go | |
Ten million silver lizards out of snow! | |
As often as I've seen it done before | |
5 |
I can't pretend to tell the way it's done. |
It looks as if some magic of the sun | |
Lifted the rug that bred them on the floor | |
And the light breaking on them made them run. | |
But if I thought to stop the wet stampede, | |
10 |
And caught one silver lizard by the tail, |
And put my foot on one without avail, | |
And threw myself wet-elbowed and wet-kneed | |
In front of twenty others' wriggling speed, — | |
In the confusion of them all aglitter, | |
15 |
And birds that joined in the excited fun |
By doubling and redoubling song and twitter, | |
I have no doubt I'd end by holding none. | |
It takes the moon for this. The sun's a wizard | |
By all I tell; but so's the moon a witch. | |
20 |
From the high west she makes a gentle cast |
And suddenly, without a jerk or twitch, | |
She has her spell on every single lizard. | |
I fancied when I looked at six o'clock | |
The swarm still ran and scuttled just as fast. | |
25 |
The moon was waiting for her chill effect. |
I looked at nine: the swarm was turned to rock | |
In every lifelike posture of the swarm, | |
Transfixed on mountain slopes almost erect. | |
Across each other and side by side they lay. | |
30 |
The spell that so could hold them as they were |
Was wrought through trees without a breath of storm | |
To make a leaf, if there had been one, stir. | |
It was the moon's: she held them until day, | |
One lizard at the end of every ray. | |
35 |
The thought of my attempting such a stay! |
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From the Perscribo.com online eBook: New Hampshire by Robert Frost BACK TO TOP |
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Transcribed and formatted for Internet reading, with addition of line numbers and edits to footnotes, from the 1923 (Henry Holt and Company) hardcover edition of New Hampshire by Robert Frost.