Gathering Leaves
Gathering Leaves - meaning Summary
Harvest of Small Labors
Frost presents a simple New England chore—gathering fallen leaves—and uses it to explore effort, futility, and persistence. The speaker labors with spade and bag, making noisy, animal-like motions, yet the heaps slip through his arms and yield little weight, color, or practical use. Despite the apparent triviality, the work continues; the poem ends with a wry acceptance that a crop is a crop and with a question about where effort might ultimately lead. The tone mixes wry humor, resignation, and a plain observation of rural life.
Read Complete AnalysesSpades take up leaves No better than spoons, And bags full of leaves Are light as balloons. I make a great noise Of rustling all day Like rabbit and deer Running away. But the mountains I raise Elude my embrace, Flowing over my arms And into my face. I may load and unload Again and again Till I fill the whole shed, And what have I then? Next to nothing for weight, And since they grew duller From contact with earth, Next to nothing for color. Next to nothing for use. But a crop is a crop, And who’s to say where The harvest shall stop?
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