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On Looking Up By Chance At The Constellations
You'll wait a long, long time for anything much
To happen in heaven beyond the floats of cloud
And the Northern Lights that run like tingling nerves.
The sun and moon get crossed, but they never touch,
Nor strike out fire from each other nor crash out loud.
The planets seem to interfere in their curves -
But nothing ever happens, no harm is done.
We may as well go patiently on with our life,
And look elsewhere than to stars and moon and sun
For the shocks and changes we need to keep us sane.
It is true the longest drout will end in rain,
The longest peace in China will end in strife.
Still it wouldn't reward the watcher to stay awake
In hopes of seeing the calm of heaven break
On his particular time and personal sight.
That calm seems certainly safe to last to-night.
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| On Looking Up By Chance At The Constellations |
Summary and Analysis
Introduction:
On Looking Up By Chance At The Constellations from West-Running Brook shows Frost's interest in astronomy, though here it appears in a negative light. The poet illustrates the verious element of an ethereal sphere with a discrepant tendency.
Summary:
Heavenly bodies function in a set routine, nothing sensational happens in the sky. Sun and moon may cross but they do not touch, collide or "strike out fire from each other. If we want to see some unusual thing happen, we have to "look elsewhere than to stars and moon and sun". Things on earth may surprise us but the sky is calm and will not oblige star-gazers who keep awake expecting to see some momentous planetary explosion or collision.
Critical Analysis:
Frost's approach to the subject is humorous in this poem. Stars in Frost's poems work as images of cosmic Nature's indifference to man. Frost is always unsentimental about natural events.