Actually, I know I don't have much of an audience with this, but I thought that maybe if anyone is ever doing research on any poems from here, they'd appreciate any materail they could get.
Today we are going to examine Robert Frost's Ghost House.
Ghost House
by Robert Frost
I dwell in a lonely house I know
That vanished many a summer ago,
And left no trace bu the cellar walls,
And a cellar in which the daylight falls,
And the purple- stemmed wild raspberries grow.
O'er ruined fences the grape-vines shield
The woods come back to the mowing field;
The orchard tree has grown one copse
Of new wood and old where the woodpecker chops;
The footpath down to the well is healed.
I dwell with a strangely aching heart
In that vanished abode there far apart
On that disused and forgotten road
That has no dust-bath now for the toad.
Night comes; the black bats tumble and dart;
The whippoorwill is coming to shout
And hush and cluck and flutter about:
I hear him begin far enough away
Full many a time to say his say
Before he arrives to say it out.
It is under the small, dim, summer star,
I know not who these mute folk are
Who share the unit place with me-
Those stones out under the low-limbed tree
Doubtless bear names that the mosses mar.
They are tireless folk, but slow and sad,
Thought two, close-keeping, are lass and lad,-
With none among them that ever sings,
And yet, in view of how many things,
As sweet companions as might be had.
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First of all, what is a copse? We never use that word, do we? Let's look it up.
A copse is an English term for a small lowland woodland-Wikipedia. So, it's a small lowland area of woods. Easy.
He also says the footpath to the well is healed, implying that it was wounded from being constantly walked upon as those who once lived there went to get water. So I imagine the shape of it is still there, but cover over in grass and no longer easily known to once be.
It says that the woods come back to the mowing field. What this seems to mean is that the house once had a wide back yard area of grass. Perhaps an acre maybe? But it;s been so abandoned and un cared for that the woods(trees, and bushes, and tall grasses) have grown and crept up to the very edges and taken over that former area. It enhances how long the house has been vacated.
I have little idea what he mans by saying that the orchard tree has grown one copse. But we did find out what a copse looks like. What does an orchard tree look like? This is what google gave me: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADBR&q=orchard%20tree&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
He also mentions a whipporwill, a type of bird. But what does a whipporwill look or sound like? I got these two links: http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Whippoorwill_sounds.aspx
http://media.photobucket.com/image/whippoorwill%20sound/dihardhunter/whippoorwill.jpg
He says "it is under the small, dim, summer star." That really gives more of a sad tone because most people, when we think of summer stars will imagine either small or big bright dots of light in the sky.
He mentions the word mar. What does that word mean?
Mar: to dtract from the perfection or wholeness of. Perhaps in that line he means that the moss is marring the trees all over, preventing us from seeing where the bears have scratched their names in the trees, and laid down their stones to mark it.
In the end we're left knowing that there apprently two sad old ghosts, a man and a woman who are quiet, do not sing, and yet together still seem as happy as companions might be.
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When I read hrough this poem, I have to say my favorite part is the ghosts. Imaging that even after death, that man and woman are still close companions, silent with one another. That is the part I like best. What about you?
