(March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963 / San Francisco)

"In White": Frost's Early Version Of Design

A dented spider like a snow drop white
On a white Heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of lifeless satin cloth -
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Comments about this poem ("In White": Frost's Early Version Of Design by Robert Frost )

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  • William Kd (3/10/2013 5:14:00 PM)

    Positively Design.: -)

    11 person liked.
    9 person did not like.
  • * Sunprincess * (10/5/2012 5:13:00 PM)

    wow did a Bing search on Heal-all, saw pictures it is a beautiful plant..this created better visuals and made the poem more beautiful..thanks

    27 person liked.
    23 person did not like.
  • Poopoo Weewee (10/1/2012 7:22:00 PM)

    I like eating poo coz it tastes like rotten chocolate. Urine is nice too. Mmmmmmm :)

    63 person liked.
    100 person did not like.
  • Andrew Hoellering (2/25/2009 3:16:00 AM)

    Frost’s brilliance emerges in the difference between this and the final version. In Design he changes the first line to ‘I found a dimpled spider, fat and white.’
    ‘Lifeless’ becomes ‘vivid’(L.3) and the fourth line ‘Assorted characters of death and blight.’ ‘Snow-drop’ replaces ‘beady’ in L.7, and the 8th line now reads ‘And dead wings carried like a paper kite.’
    Each substitution is more realistic, convincing and ominous, foreshadowing Design’s conclusion:
    What brought the kindred spider to that height,
    Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
    What but design of darkness to appal? -
    If design govern in a thing so small.

    46 person liked.
    41 person did not like.
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