West-Running Brook is a collection of poetry by Robert Frost, written in 1923 and published by Henry Holt and Co. in 1928, and containing woodcuts by J. J. Lankes. The title of the poem that the volume is named by is very significant.
- Robert Frost
- Poetry collection
- 1928
- 1928
The sun runs down in sending up the brook. And there is something sending up the sun. It is this backward motion toward the source, Against the stream, that most we see ourselves in, The tribute ...
It has this throwing backward on itself. So that the fall of most of it is always. Raising a little, sending up a little. Our life runs down in sending up the clock. The brook runs down in sending up our life. The sun runs down in sending up the brook. And there is something sending up the sun.
21 feb 2021 · Analysis of Robert Frost’s West-Running Brook. By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on February 21, 2021 • ( 0 ) First published in West-Running Brook (1928) as the title poem, this narrative depicts a conversation between Fred and his wife as they meander alongside a brook. It opens with the wife inquiring which direction is north.
- Lines 1–12
- Lines 13–21
- Lines 22–42
- Lines 43–77
The opening line is a straightforward question from the wife, who asks for direction north from Fred. This in itself is a pointer to the sub-theme—where are they going this wedded pair? At this early stage of the dialogue Fred knows the answer. North is that way (does he gesture?) and the brook is running west. Now the reader can picture them, in a...
To this question the wife answers Young or new? Young people, new people, newly wed? It's not clear. Fred, clearly inspired, thinks they both as a couple should also be married to the brook. Two becomes three. They'll build a bridge which will be an arm, figuratively, and they'll sleep beside it. This romantic notion is given the thumbs up by the b...
The wave now becomes a focal point for the couple. Fred initially goes against his wife and her romantic notion that the wave is waving because the water listened. He begins a literal description of the wave but is halted by the over-voice in parentheses, lines 24–31. Fred appears to become confused—he repeats his line about the wave and the jut of...
Fred's monologue ensues. Encouraged by his wife to elucidate on the subject of contrary things, the husband steadily begins to describe the motion of the white wave resistance and the evolutionary path back to origins. Gradually Fred attempts to get back to the beginning of beginnings, by working on existence within the context of the flow and the ...
West-Running Brook was a volume of poetry Robert Frost had published in 1928. The collection includes poetry on many different aspects of human life with an emphasis on nature and solitude.
West-Running Brook (1928), Frost’s fifth book of poems, is divided into six sections, one of which is taken up entirely by the title poem. This poem refers to a brook which perversely flows west instead of east to the Atlantic like all other brooks.