The Secret Sits Poem by Robert Frost

The Secret Sits

Rating: 2.9


We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Roberto Echanes 05 August 2010

This is a very mystic poem which can have several types of meaning depending on the insight and critical interpretation of the reader. First, the structure of the poem is in a two-lined stanza with end rhyme and observing metric rule which has been written in anapest trimetre. The voice could be an external voice used as a devise or the author's voice itself. The first aspect that has to be observed in the first line is that the voice foregrounds 'we', which is a clue to mean you, they and all creatures in the universe. Next, 'dance around in a ring', highlights that all creatures (including the speaker) are in an unceasing dance in a circle or ring. What is this ring? What is this dance? The dance and the act of dancing, like the moths moving around a source of light, represents life. We humans move around a nucleus, the nucleus of life, the eternal movement of life, perhaps in a vicious circle. In Buddhism this moving around represents the constant cycle of life, death and rebirth. Then, it foregrounds the expression 'and suppose'. Only creatures who do not know the truth, who are ignorant or do not have a clue of what life is all about are guessing, but do not really know. In the second line the poet/voice mentions a 'Secret'. This Secret is a symbol for something that is to be known or the centre of true knowledge or perhaps an omniscient entity who sits at the centre while all the living creatures are moving around Him. 'And knows' - this omniscient entity really knows what the 'truth' is, who we really are and what our destiny is. In my view this small poem is an allegory of life in which human beings should at one point in life stop dancing endlessly and move closer to the all-knowing secret to be freed from a vicious circle of suppositions in order to embrace true knowledge.

51 22 Reply

Its dance round not dance around... any significance?

0 0
Rogelio Guillermo 11 October 2017

Good take... enlightening of sorts...

0 0
Oduro Bright Amoh 05 July 2015

Profundity in a couplet. Few words, great wisdom.

9 15 Reply
Jim D 21 February 2016

Roberto. Tetrametre, not trimetre. Basically iambic, resolving into anapaests or dactyls.

8 14 Reply
Lisa 17 September 2021

One of my favorite for its ability to say so much with so little. A great piece of writing is one which can evoke a plethora of responses.

0 0 Reply
ashley perdomo 15 April 2020

this story is about a fower girl wearing a nose bullet

0 1 Reply
Nader 25 July 2019

. Hold it there. No one truly knows. Socrates the wisest man, he concluded, because he knows he does not know. Let us enjoy and appreciate the secret, the mystery of life and unknown as is. Don't need to wound it with inadequate knowledge which never will be perfect. We grab sense the best we can and out we go. No more dance. Yet the dance continues, if that is any consolation.

0 0 Reply
EvilShredder 12 February 2019

We orbit a massive black hole and we try to figure out it's secrets, but only the black hole truly knows.

1 0 Reply
Chris P. Bacon 18 October 2018

tell me why my mom named me this

2 2 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Robert Frost

Robert Frost

San Francisco
Close
Error Success