Putting in the Seed

You come to fetch me from my work to-night
When supper’s on the table, and we’ll see
If I can leave off burying the white
Soft petals fallen from the apple tree.
(Soft petals, yes, but not so barren quite,
Mingled with these, smooth bean and wrinkled pea);
And go along with you ere you lose sight
Of what you came for and become like me,
Slave to a springtime passion for the earth.
How Love burns through the Putting in the Seed
On through the watching for that early birth
When, just as the soil tarnishes with weed,
The sturdy seedling with arched body comes
Shouldering its way and shedding the earth crumbs.

by Robert Frost, 1875-1963

as published in The Penguin Book of English Verse, ed. John Hayward, Penguin Books Ltd, 1956

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A four-time Pulitzer Prize winning American poet, teacher and lecturer, Robert Frost is one of America’s best-known poets; his work has remained popular since his death in 1963.

I chose this poem (which is a sonnet, by the way) … even though it is not one of Frost’s best-known works, because I was talking about my own enjoyment of gardening in yesterday’s post, and this poem is very much “on theme” in that respect. And also because we have been remembering fellow Tuesday Poet, Harvey McQueen, who recently died, and gardening and nature were very much central to his writing, as underlined in Mary McCallum’s tribute last week.