I’m not too familiar with all of Frost’s poems and didn’t know of this one until I stumbled onto it. This one is titled, Once By The Pacific (reproduced below). The imagery of the water being “shattered” against the shore as if it were a solid thing; the personification of the waves that think of “doing something” to the shore: something sudden and malevolent; the clouds that seem to have faces inside them with their unkempt hair being strewn about the dark sky as if they couldn’t care less about their appearance at this time of impending doom. Yikes! Is this the end?
But what will be will be… and you know what? And this is the good part: there’s always chance and luck that are to be found in the most impossible of times and circumstances! How fortuitous for the shore to be backed by the cliff! And how serendipitous for the cliff to be backed by the continent! Really. Who would’ve thought?! But that’s how it’s set up. So, the menacing waves will come and do their damage to the shore, but lucky shore, it’ll be alright, you see, because of that cliff that’s got its back. And the cliff itself will find itself standing long after the furious waves retreat because the continent’s got it covered.
So, let the “night of dark intent” come. Bring it on! Can destruction, damage and shattered hope last forever? Don’t the waves have to eventually retreat– back to the ocean? Doesn’t the night have to eventually end– in order for the sun to rise? Isn’t it in the order of the universe for a balance to be restored– eventually?
Well, now that I think about it, perhaps this isn’t such a pessimistic poem after all… perhaps frightening and even melancholy, but not completely without a subtle sliver of hope hiding behind every eventuality. So, go on: gird yourself with the strength and determination you might need in order to ride out the storm. You might have to “do something” or have something done to you in order to help you survive, but survive you shall. Or at least that’s what I choose to believe.
This picture? This isn’t the shores of the Pacific. It’s the shores of Lake Michigan. Placid waters and shores, aren’t they? Maybe there was a time when the waves did “do something” to the shore, but it looks just fine now, doesn’t it?
And so, my takeaway from this lovely poem: May it be that we experience all kinds of weather in this earthly journey. And may it be that we weather those mean storms that come a-brewin’ every now and again.
Once by the Pacific
-Robert Frost
The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God’s last ‘Put out the Light’ was spoken.
This post was first published on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 in my private blog.
