Bond and Free
Love has earth to which she clingsWith hills and circling arms about--Wall within wall to shut fear out.But Thought has need of no such things,For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings.
On snow and sand and turf, I seeWhere Love has left a printed traceWith straining in the world's embrace.And such is Love and glad to be.But Thought has shaken his ankles free.
Thought cleaves the interstellar gloomAnd sits in Sirius' disc all night,Till day makes him retrace his flight,With smell of burning on every plume,Back past the sun to an earthly room.
His gains in heaven are what they are.Yet some say Love by being thrallAnd simply staying possesses allIn several beauty that Thought fares farTo find fused in another star.
Words in this poem
- dauntless a.
- Incapable of being daunted; undaunted; bold; fearless; intrepid.
- interstellar a.
- Between or among the stars; as, interstellar space.
- disc n.
- A flat round plate; (Biol.) [See Disk, Dish.]
- retrace v. t.
- To trace back, as a line. [Pref. re- + trace: cf. F. retracer. Cf. Retract.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bond and Free is in the public domain. This text is taken from Mountain Interval, Project Gutenberg ebook #29345; 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, Bond and Free, in Mountain Interval (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29345, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-mountain-interval/bond-and-free.html, id L02647.
Form and metre
Bond and Free is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBAA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 35% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBAA clingsA · aboutB · outB · thingsA · wingsA
- 2 ABBAA seeA · traceB · embraceB · beA · freeA
- 3 ABBAA gloomA · nightB · flightB · plumeA · roomA
- 4 ABBAA areA · thrallB · allB · farA · starA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Love has earth to which she clings | 7 | ······· |
| With hills and circling arms about-- | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Wall within wall to shut fear out. | 8 | ········ |
| But Thought has need of no such things, | 8 | ········ |
| For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| On snow and sand and turf, I see | 8 | ········ |
| Where Love has left a printed trace | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With straining in the world's embrace. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And such is Love and glad to be. | 8 | ········ |
| But Thought has shaken his ankles free. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Thought cleaves the interstellar gloom | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And sits in Sirius' disc all night, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Till day makes him retrace his flight, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| With smell of burning on every plume, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘˘· |
| Back past the sun to an earthly room. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| His gains in heaven are what they are. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Yet some say Love by being thrall | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And simply staying possesses all | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘· |
| In several beauty that Thought fares far | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| To find fused in another star. | 9 | ···˘·˘/˘· |
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.