Frost had a history of subverting the literal lines in his poems. For example, there are several lines in The Road Not Taken that directly contradict the conclusion of “And that has made all the difference”, yet no one really reads the entire poem these days.
Nice poem! Do you think Robert Frost coined the phrase in the poem, or was it something he heard somewhere that he figured he’d skewer with the poem?
Frost had a history of subverting the literal lines in his poems. For example, there are several lines in The Road Not Taken that directly contradict the conclusion of “And that has made all the difference”, yet no one really reads the entire poem these days.
I don’t know. I assume he heard it among the farmers in New Hampshire where he lived, but that’s a total guess on my part.