A Passing Glimpse
A Passing Glimpse - context Summary
Dedicated to Ridgely Torrence
Written after Frost read Ridgely Torrence’s Hesperides and published in 1936’s A Further Range, this short poem is a dedicatory reflection on fleeting perception and missed understanding. Frost frames the moment as passing glimpses of flowers seen from a moving vehicle, images that vanish before they can be identified. The speaker inventories what the blooms are not, then wonders if something brushed the mind that others will never recover. The poem quietly links poetic friendship, sudden impressions, and the limits of hindsight.
Read Complete AnalysesTo Ridgely Torrence On Last Looking into His ‘Hesperides’ I often see flowers from a passing car That are gone before I can tell what they are. I want to get out of the train and go back To see what they were beside the track. I name all the flowers I am sure they weren’t; Not fireweed loving where woods have burnt- Not bluebells gracing a tunnel mouth- Not lupine living on sand and drouth. Was something brushed across my mind That no one on earth will ever find? Heaven gives it glimpses only to those Not in position to look too close.
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