It is almost autumn here, when the leaves start turning color and the heat of summer gives way to cooler, more forgiving weather.
Twenty minutes into our walk, we crest a grassy hill and the dogs become distracted by the rustle of quail in nearby brush. The dogs resist my gentle tug on their leashes.
The sun’s warmth outlasts the chilly morning breeze, and I smile as the dogs roll on the grass and sniff scents near and far. I could meander here indefinitely, but an unfinished essay I began earlier today beckons my return.
“Come on boys,” I say, “I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.”
Trying to resist the present
The dogs are unimpressed by poetry. They live in the present, unencumbered by regrets of the past and worries for the future.
If humans could do the same, we’d probably be happier, but then what would poets like Robert Frost write about?
Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present. — Alan W. Watts
As we continued our walk, I pulled up Frost’s famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” on my iPhone. I slowly read the four beautiful stanzas aloud to my indifferent dogs:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Academics will tell us that Frost’s poem is written in perfect iambic tetrameter with a tight-knit chain rhyme typical of a form known as Rubaiyat stanza.
What laypersons like myself will tell you is that the poem captures our yearning for nature, quiet moments, and freedom from the burdens of life.
Robert Frost’s poetry reflects his philosophy that life should not be rejected but accepted with all its limitations. According to an article in englishliterature.info:
Frost is a Classicist: He believes in the Aristotelian mean, moderation between extreme views, hope and despair, belief and doubt, self-love and social commitment. Ethically, he speaks for personal integrity and self-reliance. He is aware that there is no fixed line between wrong and right but there are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed.
Interestingly, the more you learn about Robert Frost’s life, the more you understand how loss and melancholy informed his writing. Yet he found room for beauty and hope in his words, too.
We must hunger for them
We all feel the pull of obligations and the distance between where we are and where we want to go. It seems like we never get to finally arrive. Never get to settle into a time and space that brings eternal peace.
It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them. — George Eliot
Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” always resonated with me, but even more so now that I am inching towards the winter of my life.
Having closed the door on one career and arriving late to this life of writing and art, I want the joys of creativity to be my lovely woods. A refuge from accumulated weariness, where there are no more promises to keep or miles to go before I sleep.
Perhaps you feel this too? A longing for arrival, peace, and well-being. The question is, absent death, do we ever get there?
Is it even possible?
Plenty of time and seclusion
Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco, California, and spent most of his adult life in rural New England. He published “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and other poems in his 1923 poetry collection “New Hampshire.”
Frost’s poems often drew on his rural surroundings to teach deeper principles on life. By the time Frost died in 1963, he had been awarded four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry, received the Congressional Gold Medal, and been nominated thirty-one times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
An article about Robert Frost at Gradesaver.com notes:
Frost was not a happy man; he suffered from serious bouts of depression and anxiety throughout his life and was never convinced that his poetry was truly worthwhile (as evidenced by his obsessive desire to receive a Nobel Prize). He suffered through the untimely deaths of his father, mother, and sister, as well as four of his six children and his beloved wife, all of which contributed to the melancholic mentality that appears in much of Frost’s work.
Melancholy is a funny thing. It can invite misery and yet inspire great reflection and artistic expression.
Cartoon by John P. Weiss
Where and how you chose to live can greatly affect both your melancholy and creative success. For Robert Frost, the bucolic life he lived on 30 acres in Derry, New Hampshire, proved vital to his later literary success.
An article at RobertFrostFarm.org shares the following reflection from Frost’s selected letters:
I might say the core of all my writing was probably the five free years I had on the farm down the road a mile or two from Derry Village toward Lawrence. The only thing we had was plenty of time and seclusion. I couldn’t have figured on it in advance. I hadn’t that kind of foresight. But it turned out as right as a doctor’s prescription.
Time and seclusion.
Two obvious yet elusive solutions to finding peace and well-being amidst the noise and relentless hardships of modern life. Despite the melancholic undertones of his poetry, Robert Frost’s happiest years were the ones spent in Derry, New Hampshire.
Most people understand the importance of time and seclusion, which is why they book vacations and retreats to rest and recharge. But is there more we can do to feel like we’ve finally arrived at a place of peace and well-being?
See the world as it really is
Marcel Proust’s elephantine, seven-volume “In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past),” is the longest novel in history (according to the Guinness Book of World Records).
Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist. Considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, his famous novel explores themes of love, art, time, and memory.
The novel’s narrator is searching for his own identity and the meaning of life. William C. Carter, a professor of French and Proust biographer, wrote in a lithub.com article:
In Proust’s case, I think he helps us to see the world as it really is, not only its extraordinary beauty and diversity, but his observations make us aware of how we perceive and how we interact with others, showing us how often we are mistaken in our own assumptions and how easy it is to have a biased view of another person.
Writer Claudia Merrill argues that Proust’s main concept was gratitude. In a blog post she writes:
Although his most famous connotation is the recovery of memory through stimulation of the unconscious — referred to as a Proustian moment, his contribution to a somewhat Eastern outlook on life goes mostly unnoticed. Proust gave us more than just a madeleine moment, he showed us what life could be if only we were grateful.
Proust determined that social climbing and endlessly keeping up appearances will not bring us happiness. As Merrill writes: “Proust knew that happiness was not found somewhere else, it is found within ourselves, through gratitude for our initial circumstances.”
Merrill goes on to write:
The final important observation about life Proust makes is that life can be enjoyed to the fullest if we are grateful for each moment as it is. Proust saw those around him in high society becoming depressed and consumed by their melancholy, simply because they were always searching for more. The aristocrats would never be satisfied with what they had, or the circumstances in which they were in, because of their detachment from the present moment.
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Proust knew that children are inherently happy with what they have in their daily lives. And they see everything as new and interesting. He recommended “seeing with new eyes” as a way for adults to mimic the perspective of children.
The richest of all people
When do we arrive at that magical place of peace and well-being, where there are no more promises to keep or miles to go before we sleep?
The answer will vary from person to person, for we are all unique and in different seasons of our lives. The key is understanding that the “arrival” we experience, the place of well-being and peace, is not so much a destination or place, it’s a state of being within ourselves.
Your true home is in the here and the now. — Thich Nhat Hanh
Robert Frost showed us the benefits of nature, time, and seclusion to restore our spirits. Marcel Proust taught us to see the world as it really is, have gratitude for each moment, and see the world “with new eyes.”
The richest of all people is a little child who is so happy with few simple toys! — Mehmet Murat ildan
We all have miles to go before we sleep, and promises to keep. But that doesn’t mean we have to reach the end of our journey to find happiness.
If children can find happiness within themselves, perhaps we can rediscover it too?
Before you go
I’m John P. Weiss, a fine artist, cartoonist, and black & white photographer who writes elegant stories and essays about life. To follow along, get my popular Saturday Newsletter here.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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Artworks by John P. Weiss
