Meeting and Passing
Robert Frost
As I went down the hill along the wall
There was a gate I had leaned at for the view
And had just turned from when I first saw you
As you came up the hill. We met. But all
We did that day was mingle great and small
Footprints in summer dust as if we drew
The figure of our being less than two
But more than one as yet. Your parasol
Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust.
And all the time we talked you seemed to see
Something down there to smile at in the dust.
(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)
Afterward I went past what you had passed
Before we met and you what I had passed.
Commentary:
The hill in the first stanza has many ways one can go up and down it; I assume a gate implies that a path runs perpendicular to the path our speaker is on. It is then quite remarkable that he finds someone on the exact same path he is on, and that seems to be the prelude to love. Love is depicted in the first stanza as continual turning: he turns and discovers her, the mingling of footprints suggests that they are walking in circles, around and around a section of the hill - incidentally, Purgatory, in the Divine Comedy, is a mountain one walks up to get to Paradise (more on Frost and Dante).
The turning of summer walks, though, changes with in the second stanza; the parasol points, not merely circles, and it demands a unity that is not to be. I wonder if she is younger than he; she's coming up the hill as he's coming down, yet her face is pointed downward, like she knows something - or believes something - he doesn't. She wants whatever is at the top, which might be connected with what she smiles at in the dust. He, on the other hand is returning to the earthly, and knows her love was not True, not because she wasn't sincere, but precisely because she was sincere.
- Emily Dickinson, “As Frost is best conceived” (951)
- On Frost’s “Mowing:” Death, Love and Dante
- Man and the Angels: On Frost’s “Bond and Free”
- Notes On Frost’s “Hyla Brook”
- Wisdom and Rule: On Poem 343 of Emily Dickinson, “My Reward for Being”
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What is the last line in the last stanza? I can’t seem to make it out.
Is everything set for the 8th of december?
Maybe I just don’t understand it. The wording in the last line seems awkward to me. Is it suppossed to be that way?
Yeah, it’s tricky. I took it apart to understand it:
- Afterward I went past what you had passed
That seems clear enough, the speaker going down the hill went past something she had moved beyond before, and it has an appeal to him, but not to her.
- Before we met
Reinforces the above. She passed something before.
- and you what I had passed.
And she, in relation to him “afterward,” is something that he has passed.
The thematic significance is that their meeting might as well have been a passing, I think.
some parts of it are great while some are lacking only because of placement. There is a great poetry site you should join and you will become an excellent poet, you have great potential. Join it and start posting your poetry they will help you grow. http://www.lit.org
could please provide a deeper analysis