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Once By The Pacific
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.
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| Once By The Pacific |
Summary and Analysis
Introduction:
The poem Once By The Pacific by Robert Frost from West Running Brook is expressive of personal melancholy touched with terror. Seascape echoes the voice of despair and alerts on panic ambiance. Here the orientation of the sea object is loaded with rational interpretation.
Summary:
In philosophical matters, Frost is usually tentative. He cannot accept complete agnosticism; he cannot say he is certain of nothing, nor that he is certain of everything. Once, by the Pacific has a threatening quality which rises from the poet's refusal to accept categorically, any one philosophical position. Furthermore, there is a quality of threat implicit in the natural objects. "It looked as if a night of dark intent was coming...Someone had better be prepared for rage". Vast range of seascape dejected the certainty of existence, which trance beyond the limitation of human boundaries.
Critical Analysis:
It may seem to some critics that Frost is a "spiritual drifter" because of his refusal to be categorical in his position. However, it is Frost's inquiring mind which prevents him from taking a stand on agnosticism.