A-WISHING WELL

Frost Robert

Published by New York The Spiral Press 1959

First edition and the first published appearance of this single poem, issued as a Christmas greeting in pamphlet form. Wood engravings by Thomas W. Nason. 12mo, original wrappers. 5. Fine. "In A-WISHING WELL' Frost turns once more to a constant theme: the relation between the hard material fact, often of earth and evil, that most be endured and the imagination of the poet, connected often with sky or heaven, that gives man strength to endure. As Lawrance Thompson has suggested, one feature of Frost has been to "endow images and actions with implicitly metaphorical and symbolic meanings until they repeatedly suggest a continuity be-tween his vision of the human 'fact' and the divine 'fact.' "2 And as Frost himself has often insisted on the "two-endedness of things,' so he clings in "A-Wishing Well" not only to the old earth but to the dream of a new moon within the sky to satisfy the imagination. As he says, "I'm always for a better sky." Sensitive to the desert places within man and to the torment man most endure, he is also moved by man's power of dreaming. The two facts provide humanity with its most significant aspect, its grasp on life. Faced by the convulsions of the moon's birth from the flesh of their tormented world, the Arcadians of "A-Wishing Well" cling, as did the boy in "Birches," to the realities of earth, to the "sylphion," a plant "which has for its great attribute/ It can't be pulled up by the root." Though the blast of creation might suck them from the soil they loved, a few would still hang on so that they "gave way at the wrist/ Before they gave way at the fist." This "desperately clutching hand" which puzzles science and reason is Frost's symbol for man's endless grip on life and his assurance that "man's practically inexterminate," able to endure not only the shock of creation but the power of his own longings." - A. R. Ferguson in Atlantic Monthly, April 1960. Seller Inventory # 26941

Bibliographic Details

Title: A-WISHING WELL
Publisher: New York The Spiral Press 1959
Binding: Soft cover
Edition: 1st Edition