Analysis of The Exposed Nest

Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)



You were forever finding some new play.
So when I saw you down on hands and knees
I the meadow, busy with the new-cut hay,
Trying, I thought, to set it up on end,
I went to show you how to make it stay,
If that was your idea, against the breeze,
And, if you asked me, even help pretend
To make it root again and grow afresh.
But 'twas no make-believe with you today,
Nor was the grass itself your real concern,
Though I found your hand full of wilted fern,
Steel-bright June-grass, and blackening heads of clovers.
'Twas a nest full of young birds on the ground
The cutter-bar had just gone champing over
(Miraculously without tasking flesh)
And left defenseless to the heat and light.
You wanted to restore them to their right
Of something interposed between their sight
And too much world at once--could means be found.
The way the nest-full every time we stirred
Stood up to us as to a mother-bird
Whose coming home has been too long deferred,
Made me ask would the mother-bird return
And care for them in such a change of scene
And might out meddling make her more afraid.
That was a thing we could not wait to learn.
We saw the risk we took in doing good,
But dared not spare to do the best we could
Though harm should come of it; so built the screen
You had begun, and gave them back their shade.
All this to prove we cared. Why is there then
No more to tell? We turned to other things.
I haven't any memory--have you?--
Of ever coming to the place again
To see if the birds lived the first night through,
And so at last to learn to use their wings.


Scheme ABACABCDAEEBFGDHHHFIIIEJKELLJKMNOMON
Poetic Form
Metre 1001010111 1111111101 1011010111 1011111111 1111111111 11110100101 0111110101 1111010101 1111011101 1101011101 1111111101 11110100111 1011111101 0101111110 0100001101 0101010101 1101011111 11010111 0111111111 01011100111 1111110101 1101111101 1111010101 0111010111 01110010101 1101111111 1101110101 1111110111 1111111101 1101011111 1111111111 1111111101 1101010011 1101010101 1110110111 0111111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,528
Words 302
Sentences 14
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 36
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,206
Words per stanza (avg) 299
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:30 min read
314

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. more…

All Robert Frost poems | Robert Frost Books

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