Miles to go...

A road trip visit to the Robert Frost Stone House museum in Vermont (in pictures)

We went on a weekend road trip to visit our youngest at college since we missed parent weekend, and on the way we stopped at Robert Frost’s Vermont home, now a public museum.

Of course, it rained all weekend, but we still explored the grounds and followed down the Poetry Trail where Frost wrote his famous “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Artwork from local students illustrated the path, and I snapped photos along the way. Here’s a taste…

Poetry trail in Vermont where Robert Frost wrote "Stopping by woods"

Inside the home wasn’t flashy or anything. We could only tour the first floor (sign said something about the stairs not being to code). His kitchen table was typical and okay, but I found myself drawn to his couch.

Perhaps because my own hand-me-down couch has had a giant hole in the side, scratched down to the wooden frame by my two cats and slip-covered for years now. Frost’s couch was a classic design with a great color, and he no doubt spent a lot of time lounging on it (based on the signage, it was an important piece to the family, relocated from different homes over the years). Perhaps he drank coffee or tea in the mornings, read the newspaper, and enjoyed a raging fire in the dead of winter.

Did he have days where he procrastinated on that couch? Days where he couldn’t wait for better weather outside? Days when he worried about his family? Days when writing flew from his fingertips? Days when grief took that joy away?

As a writer myself, though, the most compelling moments for me were looking out his living room window and his porch window. It was like standing before a portal, looking out at his land, and seeing his world for a brief moment through his eyes.

view from Robert Frost’s porch in Vermont

view from Robert Frost’s living room in Vermont

I would say it brought literary history to life, but that wasn’t quite it. It made his life tangible and remarkably average. Writer who loved nature. Minimalist furniture. Lover of words and people. I think we would’ve enjoyed each other’s company.

One of my favorite poems by Frost is Fireflies in the Garden, a short one, not typically quoted by others. I hope you’ll read it this morning, and tell me what you think it means.