Followers

11 November 2009

Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Design

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth—
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right, 5
Like the ingredients of a witches’ broth—
A snowdrop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all? 10
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.



key words Heal-all: a common roadside wildflower in the mint family that is usually blue in color. Blight: anything that spoils or damages something. Froth: anything that rises or overflows in a soft, light mass (figurative). Wayside: the edge of a road. Kindred: similar in kind- related. Thither: to or toward that place (archaic). Appall: to greatly dismay or horrify. Design: purpose, planning or intention that exists or is thought to exist behind an action, fact, or material object.

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