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Silas Laughed Lastly.......On "the Death of the Hired Man" By Robert Frost

“Poor Silas, so concerned for other folk,
And nothing to look backward to with pride,
And nothing to look forward to with hope,
So now and never any different”.......Robert Frost
…………………………………………………………………………
Feeling old bones resist the labor of harvest
One last time Silas has returned, alas this time for good
To earn his keep, no charity needed here!
Warren is no doubt bitter,  I’ve left no bonds behind
Only hoping tenure is somehow valued for these helping hands
Not likely so.  perhaps the value lies in my work?
After all these years?  My best work lies behind…
Won’t this man see I’ve got nothing, save for pride?

‘The Mrs.’  has received me so kindly,  bless her heart
Seeing to me as though family only could
But no kin of mine… she is only all too kind
Her gentile way has always left him to feel so welcome
Perhaps that’s why I’m here in my finality?
No better place than one where least one may mourn you…

She’s on to find Warren,  I rest here awaiting, reflecting...
Had I been but a simple man, this ending d’ be fitting
There’d be no heads hung to roads we were born to walk
But what of those taken only by chance and folly?
Warren might respect the road from which he started, wouldn’t he?
…when’d we get to regret moments like these?
…Why only now do I realize so clearly?

Thinking …picking through images in my mind
Laughing now at the frustration of trying so hard…
Trying to teach that damn boy a thing or two!!
They’re so damn smart aren’t they?  Ask them!!
No telling someone who read it what it may be like!
Laughing now, seeing how he saw it….”mumbling old man”
 I must sound like rambling, as I spoke through bitter lips…
Had I ever clarified a lesson to this poor Academic?
Or belittled his youth….. argumentative to spite him?

No matter now....I’ll be back at tending these fields!!
God pray Warren may be compassionate, of course!!
Surely he’d noticed the care I took… the pride in my work?!
If I did anything at all,  Id baled that hay MAJESTICLY!!!
…my god!!!   I am a simple man
 
Silas looked beside the barn….bales stacked neat and groomed!!!
    Just as he had assured this was best suited!!
Ha! HA! My way has been placed to make order…take that Harold Wilson!!!!
HAROLD WILSON!!!   P!.....H!.....D!!!   
He calmed himself …yet still smugly 
Resting eyes,  breath slowing…drifting….heavier thoughts now
He smiled as he fell to rest,   Silas died………
  thinking of that which he looked back on with pride.

Copyright © Steve Voorhees | Year Posted 2009

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Denis Joe Date: 1/2/2009 11:46:00 AM Frost’s narratives came across as unfinished stories at times (his pre-war work, especially). But when you read through them you can see the poetry in his colouring with words. ‘The Death of the Hired Man’ is a finished work. ‘“Dead,” was all he answered.’ Is the end of it, there is no more to be said on the matter. Frost gave Silas a voice and I am not sure that this narrative provides the reader with anything more. I read this through a couple of times and I feel that it doesn’t work. Login to Reply