No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking
When the rooms were warm, he’d call
And slowly I would rise and dress
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices.
This is my favorite poem of all time. I think a lot of us country kids can relate to having stoic guardians that battle away the hostile environment. What are “love’s austere and lonely offices,” do you think? What are the “chronic angers of that house”? What is “blueblack cold”?
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
This has a less clear speaker and point of view. What is Robert Frost talking about? Why mention Eden? Why can nothing gold stay, and what are “things that are gold”? This poem is famous around the world, but I mainly know it from a popular book called “The Outsiders,” which was written by an Oklahoman girl your age! Have any of you read it?
