Wednesday, July 03, 2024

Revelation

Robert Frost  A Boy's Will 1913

We make ourselves a place apart
     Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
     Till someone find us really out.

’Tis pity if the case require
     (Or so we say) that in the end
We speak the literal to inspire
     The understanding of a friend.

But so with all, from babes that play
     At hide-and-seek to God afar,
So all who hide too well away
     Must speak and tell us where they are.

 

I'll have a go at it because of the last stanza, though I am not known for being good at all at poetry analysis.

We hide ourselves, quietly or noisily, because of some fear of discovery and rejection. Yet discovery is what we desire, so we craft our hiding cleverly, in hopes of inspiring someone to look more closely. Sadly, few pursue to the degree we would like, and in the end we forego the disguises and say the truth more baldly.

Because few will look, or none, all must eventually reveal themselves.  Even God must spell it out and appear before us, because so few earnestly desired to know Him.

 

4 comments:

Grim said...

I once wrote a reply to this poem. You commented on it at the time.

https://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2015/07/reply-to-frost.html?m=1

Assistant Village Idiot said...

And I must have forgotten the poem itself immediately, being caught up in my family story.

I like your reply better now, I am sure.

james said...

"I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?"

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Excellent tie-in