Observations placeholder
Frost, Robert - When I was young, we dwelt in a vale
Identifier
002591
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Robert Frost – from The Poetry of Robert Frost
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Chris Beetles - Fairies |
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When I was young, we dwelt in a vale
By a misty fen that rang all night
And thus it was the maidens pale
I knew so well, whose garments trail
Across the reeds to a window light
The fen had every kind of bloom
And for every kind there was a face
And a voice that has sounded in my room
Across the sill from the outer gloom
Each came singly unto her place
But all came every night with the mist
And often they brought so much to say
Of things of moment to which, they wist
One so lonely was fain to list
That the stars were almost faded away
Before the last went, heavy with dew
Back to the place from which she came
Where the bird was before it flew
Where the flower was before it grew
Where bird and flower were one and the same
And thus it is I know so well
Why the flower has odour, the bird has song
You have only to ask me, and I can tell
No, not vainly there did I dwell
Nor vainly listen all night long