Meeting and Passing
As I went down the hill along the wallThere was a gate I had leaned at for the viewAnd had just turned from when I first saw youAs you came up the hill. We met. But allWe did that day was mingle great and smallFootprints in summer dust as if we drewThe figure of our being less than twoBut more than one as yet. Your parasol
Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust.And all the time we talked you seemed to seeSomething down there to smile at in the dust.(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)Afterward I went past what you had passedBefore we met and you what I had passed.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- parasol n.
- A kind of small umbrella used by women as a protection from the sun. [F., fr. Sp. or Pg. parasol, or It. parasole; It. parare to ward off, Sp. & Pg. parar (L. parare to prepare) + It. sole sun, Sp. & Pg. sol (L. sol). See Parry, S]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Meeting and Passing 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, Meeting and Passing, in Mountain Interval (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29345, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-mountain-interval/meeting-and-passing.html, id L02644.
Form and metre
Meeting and Passing is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 71% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABBAABB- wallA · viewB · youB · allA · smallA · drewB · twoB · parasol
- 2 ABABCC thrustA · seeB · dustA · meB · passedC · passedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As I went down the hill along the wall | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| There was a gate I had leaned at for the view | 11 | ··········· |
| And had just turned from when I first saw you | 10 | ·········· |
| As you came up the hill. We met. But all | 10 | ·········· |
| We did that day was mingle great and small | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Footprints in summer dust as if we drew | 10 | /··/˘····· |
| The figure of our being less than two | 10 | ·/˘·//˘··· |
| But more than one as yet. Your parasol | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust. | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And all the time we talked you seemed to see | 10 | ·········· |
| Something down there to smile at in the dust. | 10 | /˘········ |
| (Oh, it was without prejudice to me!) | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Afterward I went past what you had passed | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| Before we met and you what I had passed. | 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.