Into My Own

Robert Frost · 1913–1916

Catalog grade guidance: 6–12 — From Frost’s first three books (US public domain: published 1913–1916).

15 content lines · 125 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 9 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg eBooks #3021 (A Boy's Will, 1913), #3026 (North of Boston, 1914) and #29345 (Mountain Interval, 1916).Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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 day
    Into 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 track
    To overtake me, who should miss me here
    And 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.