Sand Dunes
Sand Dunes - context Summary
Published in New Hampshire
Published in 1923 in Frost’s collection New Hampshire, "Sand Dunes" sits among poems that explore New England landscapes and human resilience. The poem contrasts sea and shore to suggest how community and mind persist against natural forces. It reflects early-20th-century interest in rural life and moral steadiness rather than technological change. Placed in a volume that won Frost wider recognition, the poem reinforces the collection’s themes of endurance, human agency, and the moral imagination rooted in familiar settings.
Read Complete AnalysesSea waves are green and wet, But up from where they die, Rise others vaster yet, And those are brown and dry. They are the sea made land To come at the fisher town, And bury in solid sand The men she could not drown. She may know cove and cape, But she does not know mankind If by any change of shape, She hopes to cut off mind. Men left her a ship to sink: They can leave her a hut as well; And be but more free to think For the one more cast-off shell.
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