Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The clock declares that time is neither right nor wrong, and the speaker is familiar with darkness.
In plain terms
Time isn’t moral, and I know night well.
What can you take from it?
Accept that time is neutral and embrace its darkness.

Where it applies

  • creative writing
  • nighttime contemplation

Putting it to work

  • use darkness as a creative source
  • avoid moralizing time

Questions to consider

  • What does ‘night’ symbolize for you?
  • How do you view time’s neutrality?

Another view

It offers little practical direction.

More from Robert Frost

  1. That day she put our heads together, Fate had her imagination about her, Your head so much concerned with outer, Mine with inner, weather.

    Permalink to quote #32
  2. If, as they say, some dust thrown in my eyes Will keep my talk from getting overwise, I'm not the one for putting off the proof. Let it be overwhelming, off a …

    Permalink to quote #34
  3. Tree at my window, window tree, My sash is lowered when night comes on; But let there never be curtain drawn Between you and me.

    Permalink to quote #31

Related quotes

  1. We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.

    Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter quote #1
  2. We should therefore, with grace and optimism, embrace NOMA's tough-minded demand: Acknowledge the personal character of these human struggles about morals and …

    Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould quote #1
  3. The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relations of man to man. In reality, however, the q…

    Albert SchweitzerAlbert Schweitzer quote #1