A Time to Talk by Robert Lee Frost Analysis

A Time to Talk:

When a friend calls to me from the road

And slows his horse to a meaning walk,

I don't stand still and look around

On all the hills I haven't hoed,

And shout from where I am, 'What is it?'

No, not as there is a time talk.

I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,

Blade-end up and five feet tall,

And plod: I go up to the stone wall

For a friendly visit.

Robert Lee Frost

Analysis:

Robert Frost was one of the many great poets of his time, a man who struggled for such achievement and has suffered such loss in his family. He was born in San Francisco, California, on 26 March 1874.

The poem is talking about a field worker working when he was approached by a friend who wanted to talk to him. The worker then quickly decides that talking to his friend instead of working has more value to him. The poem says that “And slows his horse to a meaning walk” which is from the past as only in the olden days we use a horse to travel. Now in the modern world, we use vehicles to travel so this has influenced how I read the poem. The speaker values spending some time with a friend more highly than finishing his work, which, after all , will still be there after the opportunity to talk with his friend has passed.