A Soldier
A Soldier - context Summary
Composed During World War I
Written for the World War I moment and published in 1916, Robert Frost’s sonnet frames a fallen soldier as a hurled lance lying pointed but unlifted. The poem shifts from a literal image of defeat to a broader reflection: human perspectives see only the immediate impact, not the intended arc. Frost suggests that what seems like failure may have propelled the soldier’s spirit beyond any visible target, turning mortal interruption into continued movement. As a short, philosophical war poem, it reframes loss as extension rather than simple ruin.
Read Complete AnalysesHe is that fallen lance that lies as hurled, That lies unlifted now, come dew, come rust, But still lies pointed as it plowed the dust. If we who sight along it round the world, See nothing worthy to have been its mark, It is because like men we look too near, Forgetting that as fitted to the sphere, Our missiles always make too short an arc. They fall, they rip the grass, they intersect The curve of earth, and striking, break their own; They make us cringe for metal-point on stone. But this we know, the obstacle that checked And tripped the body, shot the spirit on Further than target ever showed or shone.
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