Robert Frost

An Encounter

"weather breeder"

A specific meteorological term for oppressive heat that precedes a storm. Frost uses real weather vocabulary rather than poetic description—this sets a factual, observational tone.

ONCE on the kind of day called "weather breeder,"
When the heat slowly hazes and the sun
By its own power seems to be undone,
I was half boring through, half climbing through
A swamp of cedar. Choked with oil of cedar
And scurf of plants, and weary and over-heated,
And sorry I ever left the road I knew,
I paused and rested on a sort of hook
That had me by the coat as good as seated,
And since there was no other way to look,
Looked up toward heaven, and there against the blue,
Stood over me a resurrected tree,

"resurrected tree"

The tree is dead wood that's been raised upright again—likely by telephone or power lines. Frost doesn't say 'tree' until this line; he builds suspense by describing it first as a barkless spectre.

A tree that had been down and raised again—
A barkless spectre. He had halted too,
As if for fear of treading upon me.
I saw the strange position of his hands—

"dragging yellow strands / Of wire"

Power lines or telephone wires—the poem is set in an electrifying modern world, not wilderness. The 'yellow strands' are literal (aged copper) and suggest something extracted or parasitic.

Up at his shoulders, dragging yellow strands
Of wire with something in it from men to men.

"dragging yellow strands / Of wire"

Power lines or telephone wires—the poem is set in an electrifying modern world, not wilderness. The 'yellow strands' are literal (aged copper) and suggest something extracted or parasitic.

"You here?" I said. "Where aren’t you nowadays
And what’s the news you carry—if you know?
And tell me where you’re off for—Montreal?
Me? I’m not off for anywhere at all.
Sometimes I wander out of beaten ways

"orchid Calypso"

A real rare wildflower of northeastern North America. Frost names it specifically—this is a botanist's search, not romantic wandering. The speaker is looking for something specific and elusive.

Half looking for the orchid Calypso."
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Modern Intrusion Into Nature

This poem stages an encounter between the speaker (wandering in a swamp) and a dead tree that's been resurrected and weaponized by power lines. The tree becomes a figure for technology's colonization of the natural world—it's no longer a tree but a conduit, its 'hands' now dragging wires 'from men to men.' Frost doesn't condemn this outright; instead, he makes it strange and slightly menacing.

The poem's setting is crucial: a swamp of cedar, which should be a refuge from civilization, is instead invaded by infrastructure. The speaker is already uncomfortable ('weary and over-heated,' 'sorry I ever left the road'), and the tree's appearance only deepens the uncanniness. Notice that Frost gives the tree agency—it 'halted too, / As if for fear of treading upon me'—as if the technology has given it an eerie consciousness.

Frost's Technique: Observation Before Interpretation

Frost builds this poem through precise, concrete detail rather than symbolism. He names the 'weather breeder,' the 'oil of cedar,' the 'yellow strands' of wire—these are things you can verify. Only after establishing what he's actually seeing does he interpret ('resurrected tree,' the tree's 'strange position'). This method makes the poem's strangeness feel earned rather than imposed.

The dialogue at the end shifts the poem's register entirely. After 14 lines of dense description, the speaker suddenly addresses the tree as a messenger or traveler. The questions ('Where aren't you nowadays?' 'what's the news you carry?') treat the tree as a carrier of information—which it is, literally, through the wires. The speaker's final revelation ('Sometimes I wander out of beaten ways / Half looking for the orchid Calypso') contrasts his search for rare natural beauty with the tree's mechanical, ubiquitous presence. This is Frost's real subject: the competition between what we seek in nature and what technology has made omnipresent.