The Secret Sits

The Secret Sits - form Summary

Epigram: Concise Revelation

Robert Frost’s two-line epigram, published in the 1936 collection A Further Range, sets up a simple but pointed contrast: human beings "dance round in a ring and suppose," while an inscrutable Secret remains stationary and aware. The poem’s brevity forces a sharp, elliptical judgment about knowledge and ignorance, implying that curiosity and conjecture circle a central truth that does not participate in our speculation. The form compresses paradox and leaves readers facing the idea of an indifferent, knowing center without exposition or resolution.