Devotion Poem by Robert Frost

Devotion

Rating: 3.5


The heart can think of no devotion
Greater than being shore to ocean -
Holding the curve of one position,
Counting an endless repetition.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Margot Anderson 12 November 2006

There's a really neat sculpture outside the Burbank Branch of the Portland Public Library (Portland, ME, that is) in tribute to this poem. Check it out if you're in town.

12 2 Reply
Andrew Hoellering 28 December 2009

Frost is able to capture so much in just a few words. ‘Shore to ocean’ is a most effective metaphor, its static quality brilliant enhanced by the waves implied in the last line of the poem. The constancy and reliability suggested here is implicit in the phrase ‘for better or worse, for richer or poorer’ as it is also present in Hamlet’s ‘this above all, to thine own self be true.'

12 1 Reply
Kuba Jasinski 26 July 2012

It is so great not due to its perfect form, but most through philosophical weight, truly wonderful in such a short piece. Ocean needs shore to its existence and vice versa, no ocean shore can exist without being boundary for the body of water. So what we have here is a relation of something and its complement. Quite unexpectedly poetry and mathematics meet in this poem. What can actually sound more abstract than the last two lines with curve of one position and endless repetition? Nothing could contrast more to devotion - a human quality. I admit it's just one face of it, but the better the poem, the more astray one goes analysing it.

10 2 Reply
* Sunprincess * 26 October 2012

Wow he painted a big picture and great concept in few words..fabulous! .. :)

10 2 Reply
Robert 24 April 2019

Only the chosen few can take this poem to heart.

0 0 Reply
Khairul Ahsan 11 February 2019

A brilliant four liner that fully deserves the honor.

0 0 Reply

No one cares what you think

0 4
Ahmed Gumaa 10 February 2019

Simple poem with great wisdom, The rhyme is expressive and symbolic.

1 0 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 10 February 2019

A fantastic poem by the one of the greatest poets of all time....

0 0 Reply
Ratnakar Mandlik 10 February 2019

A profound four liner composed by a great modern poet.

0 0 Reply
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