Two such as you with such a master speed, cannot be parted nor be swept away, from one another once you are agreed, that life is only life forevermore, together wing to wing and oar to oar.
What is this talked-of mystery of birth. But being mounted bareback on the earth?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the enigma of life and existence, suggesting that to truly understand it, one must connect with nature and the world around us.
In this quote, Robert Frost contemplates the mystery of birth and existence, equating it to the experience of being 'mounted bareback on the earth.' This metaphor illustrates the raw and unfiltered connection humans have with the natural world, emphasizing that understanding life requires a deep engagement with our surroundings. Frost seeks to highlight that the complexities of life are intertwined with our earthly existence, inviting us to explore the simplicity and beauty of being alive.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy seminar discussing the meaning of existence.
More from Robert Frost
All quotes βYou have freedom when you're easy in your harness.
God made a beauteous garden With lovely flowers strown, But one straight, narrow pathway That was not overgrown. And to this beauteous garden He brought mankind to live, And said "To you, my children, These lovely flowers I give. Prune ye my vines and fig trees, With care my flowers tend, But keep the pathway open Your home is at the end." God's Garden
'Warm in December, cold in June, you say?' _x000D_ _x000D_ I don't suppose the water's changed at all. _x000D_ _x000D_ You and I know enough to know it's warm _x000D_ _x000D_ Compared with cold, and cold compared with warm. _x000D_ _x000D_ But all the fun's in how you say a thing.
For, dear me, why abandon a belief, Merely because it ceases to be true, Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt, It will turn true again, for so it goes.
The question that he frames in all but words is what to make of a diminished thing.
Similar quotes
The moon had risen behind him, the color of a shark's underbelly. It lit the ruined walls, and the skin of his arms and hands, with its sickly light, making him long for a mirror in which to study his face. Surely he'd be able to see the bones beneath the meat; the skull gleaming the way his teeth gleamed when he smiled. After all, wasn't that what a smile said? Hello, world, this is the way I'll look when the wet parts are rotted.
There are some kinds of Christianity that insist you have to believe literally in doctrine. The Gnostic gospels open out the complexity and multiplicity of approaches to this. If you think the story of the virgin birth is mistranslated, for instance, it doesn't mean you have to throw out the whole thing.
We beseech [God] to pardon our national and other transgressions.
The natural tendency of every government is to grow steadily worse-that is, to grow more satisfactory to those who constitute it and less satisfactory to those who support it.
There are men and women so lonely they believe God, too, is lonely.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.