Others taught me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
Me myself in the summer heaven godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths--and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.

Poet: Robert Frost
Poem: 25. For Once, Then, Something
Volume: New Hampshire
Year: Published/Written in 1923

Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, For Once, Then, Something, has received 39 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own.