The witch that came (the withered hag)
To wash the steps with pail and rag
Was once the beauty Abishag,

The picture pride of Hollywood.
Too many fall from great and good
For you to doubt the likelihood.

Die early and avoid the fate.
Or if predestined to die late,
Make up your mind to die in state.

Make the whole stock exchange your own!
If need be occupy a throne,
Where nobody can call you crone.

Some have relied on what they knew,
Others on being simply true.
What worked for them might work for you.

No memory of having starred
Atones for later disregard
Or keeps the end from being hard.

Better to go down dignified
With boughten friendship at your side
Than none at all. Provide, provide!

Robert Frost

Abishag was the last wife, care-giver, nurse of King David. She was chosen for her great beauty and virtue.

I’ve been reading, among other things, a book called Robert Frost Himself by Stanley Burnshaw. It’s a retired library copy I bought at Pearl Street Books in LaCrosse. Here is a review of that book.

I’m not a huge fan of Frost’s. I picked up the book thinking it would be a biography and thinking it would have details of his life and relationships with other writers. I believe I opened it and read a paragraph to see if it was a readable book or not, and must have decided it was, because I bought it.

The main thing, the most interesting thing, the thing I had not expected was the account of Frost and his main, ‘official’ biographer Laurence Thompson. Thompson’s three volume, 2000 page biography of Frost was not published until after Frost’s death. It was not a favorable biography. It blamed Frost for his family’s misfortunes and apparently did not have much good to say about the man at all. The book I bought was a defense of Frost against his ‘official’ biography.

The poem above which seems to me to about preparing for death. It was published in the Communist weekly New Masses. When I went looking for the poem I found it on a website called poemhunter.com where at the top it said
Robert Frost

1 on top 500 poets.

So who had the last laugh? Or groan?

Here’s the list of top 500 poets: according to this website.

HInt:
Read the poem out loud and think about what each line means.

Last updated December 01, 2014