How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
Back out of all this now too much for us,
Back in a time made simple by the loss (1-3)
Now entering the wayback machine. With an echo of the famous William Wordsworth poem, Frost shows us how we can escape all the complications of now and travel back to a simpler, idealized past. What makes that past simpler? Well, simply the fact that memory has blurred out a lot of the detail. In other words, it seems simpler because we can't remember it all perfectly.
Quote #2
There is a house that is no more a house
Upon a farm that is no more a farm
And in a town that is no more a town. (5-7)
Remembering the past can get a bit tough at times, especially when you realize just how much things have changed. Houses are no longer houses. They're holes in the ground. Which is, you know, kind of depressing.
Quote #3
Where were they all not twenty years ago? (26)
With a question like this, Frost sounds like every old coot indulging in nostalgia. Here he's talking about the trees that didn't exist and are now acting all high and mighty, excited and flighty, like the upstart whippersnappers that they are. Right, where were they? And what does that say about the way things are now?