Summary of Going for Water
The poem ‘Going for Water’ has been written by a well-known poet Robert Frost. It is about why the people/children had to go very far to find water and where they went. The poem begins with people/children having to cross the fields behind their house to find out if the river is still running as the well outside their door has dried out. The people are quite happy to have an excuse to go outside because it’s a beautiful autumn evening.
The people/children, overjoyed, run forward as if to meet the moon which slowly rises behind the trees. The trees in the autumn are bare and devoid of the songs of the birds, and there is no breeze to sway the leafless branches.
Once they enter the wood, the people/children stop believing that the moon will not be able to see them for at least some time. When the moon finds them, they run away, laughing happily to a new hiding place. The reference to gnomes adds to this evening’s magic quality. Even daily work is transformed into an enjoyable experience. When the people/children hear the river, they pause and hold each other’s hands as if to warn the other not to make a sound. They could hear the sound of the river, the tinkling sound of running water, in the silence and quietness of the evening. The poet paints a beautiful picture of the pearl-like drops of water that glow in the bright moonlight of the pool which in turn makes the slender brook look like a silver blade.
The rhyming scheme of the poem is abcb. Every line has 8 syllables, except for the first line of the 5th stanza. That has 9 syllables – perhaps indicating the pause made by the people going for water.
Figures of Speech/ Poetic Devices
The poet has used several figures of speech to beautify this poem. For example, alliteration is one of the devices used by Frost. He has used it two times. Once when he writes, “But once within the wood, we paused” and also when he writes, “We heard, we knew, we heard the brook.” The later almost sounds like a riddle later. The repeated use of the consonant ‘w‘ stresses the words used. In these two sentences, the use of alliteration highlights its significance and gives the poem a more playful tone as it makes it sound like a riddle. This flows well with the poem’s object, which is children.
Hyperbole is another device used by Frost. “We ran as if to meet the moon.” is the first line of the third verse. That shouldn’t be taken literally. This is an exaggeration because you really can’t run to the moon. The feeling of happiness is also related and what is impossible can become possible.
During the final line of the poem, a simile is also used. “Now drops that floated on the pool/ Like pearls, and now a silver blade.” This phrase is still a simile and not a metaphor, even though the words “like” or “as” are not used, because there are two distinct comparisons. The author compares water drops to pearls, which emphasises to me how the water drops disappeared in the pool because pearls would sink and also pearls are shiny, as is water.
Questions and Answers
Q. What images does the poet use to convey the idea that the water is precious?
Ans. The poet conveys the idea that the water is precious by comparing the droplets of the water in the brook to precious things like pearls and silver blade.
