Thursday, July 20, 2017
Youthful Frost
First, I am making the assumption that the Library of America edition of Robert Frost is in chronological order, or reasonably so. Most of their collections at least make that effort, so I am taking it as a safe guess. "Into My Own" is the first poem in A Boy's Will, and the last stanza caught my attention. After leaving home, very few folks would encourage friends and family to find them later, with a bit of braggadocio regarding how little he has changed.
The last stanza a Robert Frost's "Into My Own":
They would not find me changed from him they knew--
Only more sure of all I thought was true.
If the above stanza did turn out to be true for him, and that after leaving home he truly only became more sure of what he already knew, then I don't know whether to be happy for him or sad.
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4 comments:
I find that a happy thought, Jeff, thinking that whatever your family loved about you when you're young is still there, that the 'core' is unchanged.
People grow, and their views sometimes change, but the essence of what makes you 'you' still remains.
On reflection, however, I think it was Mark Twain who said that when he was 18, he couldn't believe how little his father knew, but when he turned 21, he was astounded at how much his dad had learned in three years.
Even then, I'm sure the 'know it all' 18 year old wasn't the core of what his dad loved about him. Behavior can change.
I don't know how to edit a comment that's been posted, so I'll add this corrected quote from Mark Twain
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Should have looked it up before I made the original post.
Cheryl, the essence of what you meant was in the original post. People change over time, but if that core is sufficiently strong, then it should remain relatively constant.
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