Analysis of Good-bye, and Keep Cold

Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)



This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark
And cold to an orchard so young in the bark
Reminds me of all that can happen to harm
An orchard away at the end of the farm
All winter, cut off by a hill from the house.
I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse,
I don't want it dreamily nibbled for browse
By deer, and I don't want it budded by grouse.
(If certain it wouldn't be idle to call
I'd summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall
And warn them away with a stick for a gun.)
I don't want it stirred by the heat of the sun.
(We made it secure against being, I hope,
By setting it out on a northerly slope.)
No orchard's the worse for the wintriest storm;
But one thing about it, it mustn't get warm.
"How often already you've had to be told,
Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below."
I have to be gone for a season or so.
My business awhile is with different trees,
Less carefully nourished, less fruitful than these,
And such as is done to their wood with an axe--
Maples and birches and tamaracks.
I wish I could promise to lie in the night
And think of an orchard's arboreal plight
When slowly (and nobody comes with a light)
Its heart sinks lower under the sod.
But something has to be left to God.


Scheme AABBCCDCEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLCMMMNN
Poetic Form
Metre 11011101101 01111011001 01111111011 11001101101 11011101101 1111111001 111111011 1101111111 11011011011 11011001101 01101101101 11111101101 11101011011 11011101001 11011011 11101111011 11001011111 1111011011 11001111001 11111101011 11001111001 11001011011 01111111111 100101 11111011001 0111101001 110011101 111101001 110111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,242
Words 253
Sentences 14
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 29
Lines Amount 29
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 964
Words per stanza (avg) 248
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

1:18 min read
254

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. more…

All Robert Frost poems | Robert Frost Books

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