A BOY'S WILL
BY
ROBERT FROST
AUTHOR OF "NORTH OF BOSTON"
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1915
TO
E. M. F.
CONTENTS
PART I
- The youth is persuaded that he will be rather more than less himself for having forsworn the world.
- He is happy in society of his choosing.
- He is in love with being misunderstood.
- He is in doubt whether to admit real trouble to a place beside the hearth with love.
- He courts the autumnal mood.
- There is no oversight of human affairs.
- He is afraid of his own isolation.
- Out of the winter things he fashions a story of modern love.
- He calls on change through the violence of the elements.
- He discovers that the greatness of love lies not in forward-looking thoughts;
- nor yet in any spur it may be to ambition.
- He is no dissenter from the ritualism of nature;
- nor from the ritualism of youth which is make-believe.
- He arrives at the turn of the year.
- Out of old longings he fashions a story.
- He is shown by a dream how really well it is with him.
- He is scornful of folk his scorn cannot reach.
- And again scornful, but there is no one hurt.
- He takes up life simply with the small tasks.
PART II
- He resolves to become intelligible, at least to himself, since there is no help else;
- and to know definitely what he thinks about the soul;
- about love;
- about fellowship;
- about death;
- about art (his own);
- about science.
PART III
- It is time to make an end of speaking.
- It is the autumnal mood with a difference.
- He sees days slipping from him that were the best for what they were.
- There are things that can never be the same.
Certain of these poems are reprinted by courteous permission from:—The Forum, The Independent, The Companion.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1913, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1963, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 60 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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