Gathering Leaves

Spades take up leaves

No better than spoons,

And bags full of leaves

Are light as balloons.

 

I make a great noise

Of rustling all day

Like rabbit and deer

Running away.

 

But the mountains I raise

Elude my embrace,

Flowing over my arms

And into my face.

 

I may load and unload

Again and again

Till I fill the whole shed,

And what will I have then?

 

Next to nothing for weight;

And since they grew duller

From contact with earth,

Next to nothing for color.

 

Next to nothing for use.

But a crop is a crop,

And who’s to say where

The harvest shall stop?

 

These excerpts are from “The Poetry of Robert Frost ”,
Edited by Edward Connery Lathem and published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited.(1866).
For more information about Robert Frost, see: http://www.robertfrost.org/body.html