Robert Frost

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Fire and IceSome say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I__e tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice.

I hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo know that for destruction iceIs also great

There should be more or less of a jumble in your head or on your note paper after the first time and even after the second. Much that you will think of in connection will come to nothing and be wasted. But some of it ought to go together under one idea. That idea is the thing to write on and write into the title at the head of your paper_ One idea and a few subordinate ideas _ [the trick is] to have those happen to you as you read and catch them _ not let them escape you_ The sidelong glance is what you depend on. You look at your author but you keep the tail of your eye on what is happening over and above your author in your own mind and nature.

Nor is there wanting in the pressSome spirit to stand simply forth,Heroic in it nakedness,Against the uttermost of earth.The tale of earth's unhonored thingsSounds nobler there than 'neath the sun;And the mind whirls and the heart sings,And a shout greets the daring one.

By faithfully working eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.

An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.

I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.

The ArmfulFor every parcel I stoop down to seizeI lose some other off my arms and knees,And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns,Extremes too hard to comprehend at. onceYet nothing I should care to leave behind.With all I have to hold with hand and mindAnd heart, if need be, I will do my best.To keep their building balanced at my breast.I crouch down to prevent them as they fall;Then sit down in the middle of them all.I had to drop the armful in the roadAnd try to stack them in a better load.

It looked as if a night of dark intent was coming, and not only a night, an age. Someone had better be prepared for rage...

The farm is a base of operations__ stronghold. You can withdraw into yourself there. Solitude for reflection is an essential ingredient in self-development. I think a person has to be withdrawn into himself to gather inspiration so that he is somebody when he comes out again among folks__hen he __omes to market_ with himself. He learns that he__ got to be almost wastefully alone.

Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That's voting.

These woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.And so I dream of going back to be.

Ah, when to the heart of man Was it ever less than a treason To go with the drift of things, To yield with a grace to reason, And bow and accept the end Of a love or a season?

More than once I should have lost my soul to radicalism if it had been the originality it was mistaken for by its young converts.

I have wished a bird would fly away,And not sing by my house all day;Have clapped my hands at him from the doorWhen it seemed as if I could bear no more.The fault must partly have been in me.The bird was not to blame for his keys.And of course there must be something wrongIn waiting to silence any song.