The Vantage Point
IF tired of trees I seek again mankind,Well I know where to hie me--in the dawn,To a slope where the cattle keep the lawn.There amid lolling juniper reclined,Myself unseen, I see in white definedFar off the homes of men, and farther still,The graves of men on an opposing hill,Living or dead, whichever are to mind.And if by moon I have too much of these,I have but to turn on my arm, and lo,The sun-burned hillside sets my face aglow,My breathing shakes the bluet like a breeze,I smell the earth, I smell the bruisèd plant,I look into the crater of the ant.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- reclined a.
- Falling or turned downward; reclinate.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- whichever pron.
- Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one (of two or more) which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
- crater n.
- The basinlike opening or mouth of a volcano, through which the chief eruption comes; similarly, the mouth of a gevser, about which a cone of silica is often built up. [L. crater, cratera, a mixing vessel, the mouth of a volcano, Gr. ir to cook, Crail, in Holy Grail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Vantage Point 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, The Vantage Point, in A Boy's Will (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-boys-will/the-vantage-point.html, id L04635.
Form and metre
The Vantage Point is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 7% 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 ABBAACCADEEDFF mankindA · dawnB · lawnB · reclinedA · definedA · stillC · hillC · mindA · theseD · loE · aglowE · breezeD · plantF · antF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| IF tired of trees I seek again mankind, | 10 | ·/····˘/// |
| Well I know where to hie me--in the dawn, | 10 | ·········· |
| To a slope where the cattle keep the lawn. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| There amid lolling juniper reclined, | 9 | ·˘//˘/˘˘/ |
| Myself unseen, I see in white defined | 10 | ·/˘/····˘/ |
| Far off the homes of men, and farther still, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The graves of men on an opposing hill, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Living or dead, whichever are to mind. | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| And if by moon I have too much of these, | 10 | ·········· |
| I have but to turn on my arm, and lo, | 10 | ·········· |
| The sun-burned hillside sets my face aglow, | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| My breathing shakes the bluet like a breeze, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| I smell the earth, I smell the bruisèd plant, | 9 | ········· |
| I look into the crater of the ant. | 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.