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Meeting And Passing
As I went down the hill along the wall
There was a gate I had leaned at for the view
And had just turned from when I first saw you
As you came up the hill. We met. But all
We did that day was mingle great and small
Footprints in summer dust as if we drew
The figure of our being less than two
But more than one as yet. Your parasol
Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust.
And all the time we talked you seemed to see
Something down there to smile at in the dust.
(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)
Afterward I went past what you had passed
Before we met and you what I had passed.
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| Meeting And Passing |
Introduction:
Meeting and Passing by Robert Frost from Mountain Interval, is a love poem based on the reminiscence of a lover who recalls the occasion of meeting his beloved and what happened afterward. The sonnet allows to bring back the loving concern of the beloved in memories. Particular instances of lover while entanglement occurred which allow to bring back on the remembrance.
Summary:
Meeting and Passing is a charming sonnet on love based on the speaker's reminiscence of his meeting with a girl. It is marked with tenderness and delicacy. However, Frost's love poems are all marked by restraint and the tranquility of a delightful experience. The lover recalls vividly how he saw the girl coming up the hill as he turned from a gate he was leaning on. "We met" - and the process of the fusion of the two selves begins. Their footprints mingle in the summer dust. They were less than two but more than one as yet on that first day - in other words, the fusion of identities was incomplete. Slowly they move towards a merging of identities as expressed in the last two lines. Love remains a source of joyful satisfaction throughout the integration process. And then both of them went their ways in opposite directions each passing what the other had passed before the meeting. The passing is inevitable when the meeting occurs in between lovebirds.
Critical Analysis:
Love is here treated with delicate reticence. The poet captures the tentative attraction, the shy responsiveness, and the private sense of communion of love in the first stages. There is no emotional outburst or frenzy. The vivid visual imagery is made to contribute to the effect of the integration process. Senses of imagery ignite the dynamic aspect of potentialities deep inside the lover. In form the poem is a sonnet - a mixture of the Italian, the Shakespearean and the Miltonic.