Into My Own
ONE of my wishes is that those dark trees,So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom,But stretched away unto the edge of doom.I should not be withheld but that some dayInto their vastness I should steal away,Fearless of ever finding open land,Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.I do not see why I should e'er turn back,Or those should not set forth upon my trackTo overtake me, who should miss me hereAnd long to know if still I held them dear.They would not find me changed from him they knew--Only more sure of all I thought was true.
About this text
Into My Own is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Boy's Will, Project Gutenberg ebook #3021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, Into My Own, in A Boy's Will (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-boys-will/into-my-own.html, id L04619.
Form and metre
Into My Own is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDEEFFGG treesA · breezeA · gloomB · doomB · dayC · awayC · landD · sandD · backE · trackE · hereF · dearF · knewG · trueG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ONE of my wishes is that those dark trees, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But stretched away unto the edge of doom. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| I should not be withheld but that some day | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Into their vastness I should steal away, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Fearless of ever finding open land, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand. | 10 | ·/········ |
| I do not see why I should e'er turn back, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or those should not set forth upon my track | 10 | ·········· |
| To overtake me, who should miss me here | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And long to know if still I held them dear. | 10 | ·········· |
| They would not find me changed from him they knew-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Only more sure of all I thought was true. | 10 | /˘········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.