To Earthward
By Robert Frost
Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air
That crossed me from sweet things,
The flow of—was it musk
From hidden grapevine springs
Downhill at dusk?
I had the swirl and ache
From sprays of honeysuckle
That when they’re gathered shake
Dew on the knuckle.
I craved strong sweets, but those
Seemed strong when I was young;
The petal of the rose
It was that stung.
Now no joy but lacks salt,
That is not dashed with pain
And weariness and fault;
I crave the stain
Of tears, the aftermark
Of almost too much love,
The sweet of bitter bark
And burning clove
When stiff and sore and scarred
I take away my hand
From leaning on it hard
In grass and sand
The hurt is not enough:
I long for weight and strength
To feel the earth as rough
To all my length.
Robert Frost’s “To Earthward” focuses on the influential role
time plays on the development of love and reveals that love can sometimes bring
pain and bitterness but those struggles are what make love taste even sweeter. The
first stanza of the poem illustrates the “honeymoon” period of a new love. The
speaker is overjoyed and enamored. So much so that it “seemed too much” and he “lived
on air”. Underneath the surface of this sweet love, however, there is a sense
of foreboding. This is seen in the second stanza as the smell of musk is
mentioned, “That crossed me from sweet things, /
The flow of—was it musk.” Musk is a strong, animalistic
scent that is often used in the undertones of perfume. It is a scent that is
also associated with sex because it is an aphrodisiac. Juxtaposed against the “sweet
things” that suggest innocence, the scent of musk that the speaker smells is
used to foreshadow the maturity and darkness of the relationship that is to
come. The last line of the second stanza, “Downhill at dusk?” has a similar effect.
“Downhill” paints a picture of uneven ground for this relationship. Flat,
leveled ground would mean that the love will be smooth and easy, but by
illustrating uneven ground, the speaker is foreshadowing difficulties that
would soon to come. “Dusk” is the time of day when the sun is setting. While beautiful
and colorful, dusk brings darkness as day turns to night. The transition from
day to night symbolizes the transition of the love from shallow sweetness to a
love with more maturity and difficulty. The speaker admits that while he was
younger, he “craved strong sweets” such as “honeysuckle” and “the petal of the
rose”. But he realizes now that “Now no joy but lacks salt, / That is not
dashed with pain / And weariness and fault; / I crave the stain.” Salt, which
is the opposite of sugar and sweetness, represents the difficulties that come
with love and relationships. So the line, “Now no joy but lacks salt”, goes to
convey that everything that brings joy is “dashed with pain and weariness and
fault”. Still, the speaker craves “the stain”, which means that he loves because of these difficulties that come
with a deeper relationship. He cherishes the bitterness and the tears, viewing
those as “the aftermark / Of almost too much love,” evidence that their love is
real. He compares these feelings in the next stanza to times when his hand is “stiff
and sore and scarred” “From leaning on it hard / In grass and sand.” Grass and
sand are pleasant parts of nature, but leaning on it hard can leave imprints
and soreness. This comparison ties back into the line, “Now no joy lacks salt.”
To bring his transformation from a boy who craved only the shallow sweetness of
love to a man that learned to understand how the pain of love creates joy, the
speaker concludes by saying that “The hurt is not enough: / I long for weight
and strength / To feel the earth as rough / To all my length.”
