Going for water Robert frost

Going for Water

Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

The well was dry beside the door,  
  And so we went with pail and can  
Across the fields behind the house  
  To seek the brook if still it ran;  
  
Not loth to have excuse to go,
  Because the autumn eve was fair  
(Though chill), because the fields were ours,  
  And by the brook our woods were there.  
  
We ran as if to meet the moon  
  That slowly dawned behind the trees,
The barren boughs without the leaves,  
  Without the birds, without the breeze.  
  
But once within the wood, we paused  
  Like gnomes that hid us from the moon,  
Ready to run to hiding new
  With laughter when she found us soon.  
  
Each laid on other a staying hand  
  To listen ere we dared to look,  
And in the hush we joined to make  
  We heard, we knew we heard the brook. 
  
A note as from a single place,  
  A slender tinkling fall that made  
Now drops that floated on the pool  
  Like pearls, and now a silver blade.

* This poem is about children searching for water in a nearby brook. I like this poem because it is cheerful. The children are laughing and are happy about heading towards the woods.
* Alliteration is one of the devices Frost uses within his poem. He uses it twice. Once when he writes, “But once within the wood, we paused” and also when he writes, “We heard, we knew, we heard the brook.” The later almost sounds like a riddle. The repeated use of the consonant ‘w‘ emphasizes the words used. The use of alliteration in these two phrases highlights there importance and gives the poem a more playful tone, since it does make it sound like a riddle. This flows well with the object of the poem, which is children.
* Another device used by Frost is a hyperbole. The first line of the third verse is “We ran as if to meet the moon.” That is not to be taken literally. It is an exaggeration because you can not really run to the moon. It also related the feeling of happiness and what is impossible can become possible.
* A simile is also used during the last line of the poem. “Now drops that floated on the pool/ Like pearls, and now a silver blade.” Even though the words ‘like‘ or ‘as‘ is not used this phrase is still a simile and not a metaphor because there are two distinct comparison. The author is comparing water drops to pearls, which to me emphasizes how the water drops disappeared in the pool because pearls would sink and also pearls and shiny, as is water.