For Once, Then, Something
Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)
Others taught me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
Me myself in the summer heaven godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths--and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 323 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCCBDECFGCHIJB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 694 |
Words | 128 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 15 |
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"For Once, Then, Something" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/30854/for-once,-then,-something>.
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