The Impulse
The Impulse - context Summary
Published in Mountain Interval
Robert Frost's "The Impulse" was published in the 1916 collection Mountain Interval. The poem presents a concise rural scene that culminates in an abrupt, decisive moment; Frost uses domestic and natural imagery to stage a sudden severing of ties. Placed in the 1916 volume, the poem fits Frost's early-career focus on New England life and moral epiphany. Its compact narrative and quiet shock reflect the collection's broader interest in how ordinary events reveal larger truths about human relationships and mortality.
Read Complete AnalysesIt was too lonely for her there, And too wild, And since there were but two of them, And no child, And work was little in the house, She was free, And followed where he furrowed field, Or felled tree. She rested on a log and tossed The fresh chips, With a song only to herself On her lips. And once she went to break a bough Of black alder. She strayed so far she scarcely heard When he called her- And didn’t answer-didn’t speak- Or return. She stood, and then she ran and hid In the fern. He never found her, though he looked Everywhere, And he asked at her mother’s house Was she there. Sudden and swift and light as that The ties gave, And he learned of finalities Besides the grave.
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