[1324] The Telephone

Guest poem sent in by Radhika Gowaikar <gowaikar@>

"When I was just as far as I could walk
From here to-day,
There was an hour
All still
When leaning with my head against a flower
I heard you talk.
Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say--
You spoke from that flower on the window sill--
Do you remember what it was you said?"

"First tell me what it was you thought you heard."

"Having found the flower and driven a bee away,
I leaned my head,
And holding by the stalk,
I listened and I thought I caught the word--
What was it? Did you call me by my name?
Or did you say--
*Someone* said 'Come' -- I heard it as I bowed."

"I may have thought as much, but not aloud."

"Well, so I came."

 	-- Robert Frost

Text within *s in italics.
From Louis Untermeyer's 'Robert Frost's Poems.'

I like Robert Frost. Usually, it is the way his intellect and wit
simultaneously shine through his verse that I appreciate most. But this
poem appeals to me differently. I like its simplicity (and that of its
characters) and the 'telephone' is just such a sweet notion. The
artlessness of the "Well, so I came." always makes me smile. I think this
poem shows a different facet of the genius that is Frost.

Radhika Gowaikar

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