A Time To Talk

The form here is deceptively simple. Despite being part of a generation of poets who disdained the inherited conventions of tight form, that is rhythm and rhyme itself, and endorsed the daring exploration into open verse, Frost never rejected the structure of poetic form. The ten-line poem is made up of two sentences. The first states the problem; a friend approaches along the road and hails the speaker for a chat, and the second (beginning at Line 6) responds to the problem and offers a simple solution, stop working and enjoy an interlude away from chores to feel the rich reward of simple human contact.

What is of interest in the form Frost selects is the apparently casual rhyme scheme. Known for tightly constructed formal poetry that worked around and with a clear and steadying rhyme scheme, this poem at first read seems carelessly open, dangerously free, just like the open road.

The rhyme scheme that defines the form is subtle, yes, but it is there. It is unconventional—ABCADBCEED—but it is there. The rhyming scheme defines a poem as carelessly lackadaisical, as wonderfully unscripted as the conversation these two New Englanders are about to have.