"A Late Walk"

“A Late Walk”

When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

-Robert Frost

Robert Frost was an American-born poet in the nineteenth century, who is most well known for his more “traditional” style of writing, rather than aligning with contemporary modernist writers. A majority of his work focused on everyday life of the simple man, connection with nature, and a masterful use of colloquial speech. Written in 1915, “A Late Walk” narrates the story of a farmer’s walk home as autumn leaves and winter approaches. With a strong focus on emotion, Frost uses the farmer’s experience to explore and make more tangible, the human emotions created by mortality. The narrator of the poem is most likely the farmer, as he is walking through mowed fields. The mowed fields indicate that the poem takes place after harvest, possibly in the late fall. The fields are described as a “headless aftermath,” which is reminiscent of war and execution. The famer is therefore portrayed as a soldier returning from war, which evokes a feeling of closure. “Headless aftermath” can also refer to the practice of executing monarchs with the guillotine (cutting off the head). In relation to the poem, it would connote the end of a rule or era and the beginning of another. This, paired with late fall, indicates that the narrator is foreshadowing the coming of winter. The narrator then reaches the “garden path,” meaning that he is walking home, this would also relate to the allusion of the soldier returning home mentioned previously. In the second stanza, the speaker describes the “whir of sober birds.” The seriousness of the birds, which are traditionally associated with singing and spring, further reinforces the notion that dark days of winter are fast approaching. The “withered weeds” are also reminiscent of dying plants (and death I general). The speaker expressed immense sadness at the sight. The third stanza describes a lone tree with a single leaf, standing by a wall. Trees and leaves symbolize life, while walls symbolize separation and enclosure. The fact that the tree is trapped, planted against the enclosure of the wall, could be a reference to mortality. Just like the end of seasons, human lives (and maybe the famer’s) come to an end.  The speaker’s thought is strong enough to disturb the single brown leaf into tumbling down. Because leaves are representative of life, symbolically, the farmer’s thoughts are accelerating the oncoming death. The narrator concludes the poem by picking a flower for a loved one inside, beyond the wall. The flowers are blue asters. In ancient times, asters were believed to drive away evil and death through the burning of its petals. This could indicate the farmer is attempting to push back the evil of winter and death. In everyday life, blue is associated with melancholy and sadness, which express the feelings of the speaker at that moment in time. The fact that he is carrying it “again to you,” and that it is the last of the asters, indicates that it might be the last time the farmer performs the ritual.