Obscure Robert Frost Poem Rediscovered
An unpublished poem by celebrated New England poet, Robert Frost, has been rediscovered. "War Thoughts at Home," a tribute to a friend killed during World War I, first emerged in 1918 when Frost inscribed it in a copy of "North of Boston," his second collection. The poem was not seen again until a graduate student at the University of Virginia, Robert Stilling, recently spotted "War Thoughts" while looking through some Frost papers.Read "Between Friends: Rediscovering the War Thoughts of Robert Frost" to learn more.
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This is what I've been able to piece together from various reports.
War Thoughts at Home
Robert Frost
[35 lines, 7 stanzas, each 5 lines]
1.
The flurry of bird war [?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
2.
It is late in an afternoon
More grey with snow to fall
Than white with fallen snow
When it is blue jay and crow
Or no bird at all.
3. [or 1?]
On the backside of the house
Where it wears no paint to the weather
And so shows most its age,
Suddenly blue jays rage
And flash in blue feather.
4.
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
….[?]
5.
And one says to the rest
“We must just watch our chance
And escape one by one-
Though the fight is no more done
Than the war is in France.”
6.
Than the war is in France!
She thinks of a winter camp
Where soldiers for France are made.
She draws down the window shade
And it glows with an early lamp.
7.
…..[?]
The uneven sheds stretch back
Shed behind shed in train
Like cars that have long lain
Dead on a side track.