by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

The sound of the trees
Language: English 
I wonder about the trees.	
Why do we wish to bear	
[Forever]1 the noise of these	
More than another noise	
So close to our dwelling place?
We suffer them by [the]1 day	
Till we lose all measure of pace,	
And fixity in our joys,	
And acquire a listening air.	
They are that that talks of going
But never gets away;	
And that talks no less for knowing,	
[As it grows wiser and older,	
That now it means to stay.]2	
My feet tug at the floor
And my head sways to my shoulder	
Sometimes when I watch trees sway,	
From the window or the door.	
I shall set forth for somewhere,	
I shall make the reckless choice
Some day when they are in voice	
And tossing so as to scare	
The white clouds over them on.	
I shall have less to say,	
But I shall be gone.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   H. Elwell 

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View original text (without footnotes)
1 omitted by Elwell
2 Elwell: "that now it means to stay / As it grows wiser, / As it grows older, / That now it means to stay."

Text Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2004-02-09
Line count: 25
Word count: 149