"Into My Own" 

by Robert Frost 

   "Into My Own" was written and published in 1906 when Frost came to a realization that he would rather be with Elinor and be oblivious to her actions as opposed to being separated ( Parini 49). Parini refers to Frost's desperation and yearning for love leading into the poem's reference. The poem exposes Frost's self-discovery and questioning of motives of not only himself, but everyone else he had grown up with. "Into My Own" digresses from the imagery of shadows and gloom onto a touchy subject that Frost wishes to abandon recollection of. 

 Listen to my reading of:

"Into My Own"

One of my wishes is that those dark trees,

So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,

Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom,

But stretched away unto the edge of doom.

I should not be withheld but that some day

Into their vastness I should steal away,

Fearless of ever finding open land,

Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.

I do not see why I should e'er turn back,

Or those should not set forth upon my track

To overtake me, who should miss me here

And long to know if still I held them dear.

They would not find me changed from him they knew--

Only more sure of all I thought was true.

Interpretation: 

    When first looking at the poem "Into My Own" at the beginning of Lathem's collection of Frost's work, I would have never guessed the reference to his Elinor without reading Parini's biography. Personally, I believe that Frost is talking about the trees as if they were Elinor and the effect/strain she has on him. The tree's appear so dark in the mind of Frost because he casts a shadow over them, forcing the things that he does not want to know or see to be out of sight, assuming that they would be out of mind as well. The open land Frost talks about seems to be an open mind, ready to accept what has happened around him that he has chosen to block out, but remains mysterious. He questions his motives for returning and then realizes that there is nothing tying him to his home besides his spouse, exposing his self-conscious mannerism. While writing this poem, Frost begins to convince himself that there is no use for him and that staying would only leave him to more hurt. Without knowing Elinor, the reader of this poem would continue to question the source of his depression.