Lyric Poem · Nature
The Pasture
by Robert Frost · 1914
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young.
It totters when she licks it with her tongue,
I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Pasture” by Robert Frost — quilloak.com/poems/the-pasture
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Pasture
- Poet
- Robert Frost
- Published
- 1914
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Nature, Love, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 8 lines · 2 quatrains
- End rhyme
- ABBC in every stanza.
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
- Refrain
- “I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Frost1874–1963
- Source record
- WikisourceThe Pasture by robert-frost, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1914
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 40fa2bd758cf13d7…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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