Going for water - Robert Frost

Going for water by Robert Frost

The well was dry beside the door,
And so we went with pail and can
Across the fields behind the house
To seek the brook if still it ran;

Not loth to have excuse to go,
Because the autumn eve was fair
(Though chill), because the fields were ours,
And by the brook our woods were there.

We ran as if to meet the moon
That slowly dawned behind the trees,
The barren boughs without the leaves,
Without the birds, without the breeze.

But once within the wood, we paused
Like gnomes that hid us from the moon,
Ready to run to hiding new
With laughter when she found us soon.

Each laid on other a staying hand
To listen ere we dared to look,
And in the hush we joined to make
We heard, we knew we heard the brook.

A note as from a single place,
A slender tinkling fall that made
Now drops that floated on the pool
Like pearls, and now a silver blade.

"As if to meet the moon", "like gnomes that hid us from the moon" and "now a silver blade" are examples of similes, one of the forms of figurative language. Robert Frost used the two similes to depict the two children who were going to fetch water from a brook (a stream) as mischievous youths ("gnomes") who enjoy playing under the moon. He used the third one to describe the fascinating appearance of the brook in the moonlight, which he said was a "a silver blade".

I like this poem because it is a simple one, and it allows you to appreciate the beauty of the language used without reading between the lines and ponder the deeper meening, which is what many poets love to let the readers do. Sometimes, these poems turn me off as my frustration mounts when I am unable to understand them fully. Looking at Going for Water, you would realise that the poem is rather elegant. Instead of putting everything in crude laymen's terms, the poet masterly uses language which is more subtle and slightly more difficult to understand. The details of the whole process of going to the brook and finallly reaching there are also outlined very vividly. At any rate, Going for Water is a splendid poem and reading it was rather enjoyable.