August 11, 2002
MarkBernstein.org
 

North of Boston

North of Boston
Robert Frost

Everyone knows the short poems, but Frost's dramatic dialogues are are astonishing and delightful. Here's a moment from Death of the Hired Man:

'Home,' he mocked gently.
      'Yes, what else but home?
It all depends on what you mean by home.
Of course he's nothing to us, any more
Than was the hound that came a stranger to us
Out of the woods, worn out upon the trail.

'Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.'
      'I should have called it
Something you somehow haven't to deserve.'

Death of the Hired Man is fine theater, and I found The Code a fine lesson in management.