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 sending up the sun.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The verses describe a chain of upward motion—life, brook, sun—implying that each element lifts the next, suggesting interconnected growth.
- In plain terms
- Each part of nature lifts the one above it.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize how your actions support larger systems.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What lifts you in your life?
- How do you contribute to larger cycles?
Another view
The cyclical phrasing can be confusing.
More from Robert Frost
It must be the brook Can trust itself to go by contraries The way I can with you - and you with me - Because we're - we're - I don't know What we are.
Permalink to quote #76 Something inspires the only cow of late To make no more of a wall than an open gate, And think no more of wall-builders than fools.
Permalink to quote #78 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
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