And one says to the rest
“We must just watch our chance
And escape one by one-
Though the fight is no more done
Than the war is in France.”
Than the war is in France!
She thinks of a winter camp
Where soldiers for France are made.
She draws down the window shade
And it glows with an early lamp.
Above are a few stanzas from an unpublished poem by perhaps America’s best loved poet, Robert Frost, which was recently found by a graduate student. The 35-line poem was dated 1918 and titled “War Thoughts at Home”. It was believed to have been inspired by another poet killed during the first World War.
Robert Stilling, the student who found the rather somber poem was first alerted to its existence by a 1947 letter which referred to the undiscovered poem. After some good old detective work and many months of verification, the estate of Robert Frost has now given its permission to publish the poem next week.
