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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker likens trusting a brook that goes against its nature to trusting each other despite uncertainty about identity.
In plain terms
Trust can exist even when we don't know ourselves.
What can you take from it?
Build trust despite unclear self‑definition.

Where it applies

  • relationships
  • teamwork

Putting it to work

  • communicate openly
  • accept ambiguity

Questions to consider

  • How do you trust when you feel uncertain?
  • What does 'going against contraries' mean to you?

Another view

The poetic language may obscure the practical message.

More from Robert Frost

  1. The birds that came to it through the air At broken windows flew out and in, Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh From too much dwelling on what has been.

    Permalink to quote #75
  2. Our life runs down in sending up the clock. The brook runs down in sending up our life. The sun runs down in sending up the brook. And there is something sendi…

    Permalink to quote #77
  3. Were he not gone, The woodchuck could say whether it's like his Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, Or just some human sleep.

    Permalink to quote #74

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