Robert Frost

Flower-gathering

Flower-gathering - context Summary

From a Boy's Will

This short poem, included in Frost's early collection A Boy's Will, presents a speaker parting from someone dear and ruminating on absence and recognition. The morning departure sets a quietly sorrowful tone as the speaker wonders whether the other understands him — or deliberately does not. Flowers appear as impermanent consolations, their brightness unable to bridge the distance that the speaker feels has stretched into a long absence. The poem frames longing and separation with simple domestic imagery and restrained emotion, reflecting themes that recur in Frost's early work and life.

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I left you in the morning, And in the morning glow, You walked a way beside me To make me sad to go. Do you know me in the gloaming, Gaunt and dusty gray with roaming? Are you dumb because you know me not, Or dumb because you know? All for me And not a question For the faded flowers gay That could take me from beside you For the ages of a day? They are yours, and be the measure Of their worth for you to treasure, The measure of the little while That I’ve been long away.

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