For Once, Then, Something
Robert Frost
Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
Me myself in the summer heaven godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths—and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.
VOCABULARY
Well-curb - the edge of a well, usually made of stone, that curves round in a circle
Discerned - could make out or notice a detail of something
The depths - the deepest part of a substance
Rebuke - to make a counter-argument or criticism of something
Lo - an exclamation of surprise, drawing attention to a particular event, quite archaic,
used often in Biblical language or in old fashioned phrases such as ‘lo and behold’
STORY / SUMMARY
The speaker says other people have a go at him for kneeling at the edge of a well, but
in the wrong position, so that when he looks into it the angle of the light just reflects
his own face and the bright sky behind him (rather than what may lie deeper in the
water itself, below the surface). This is an important idea: he is looking deep into the
well for something new, something other than himself, but ironically he is only able to
perceive his own reflection (because the angle he’s looking from - i.e. his perspective -
, is wrong). He sees himself as ‘godlike’ in the ‘summer heaven’ with a ‘wreath of fern’
and surrounded by ‘cloud puffs’. Once when he was looking from a slightly different
angle - placing his chin against the edge of the well - he thought he saw something
other than his own reflection. He saw beyond the reflected image, through the image,
something beyond the surface of the water - and then, he lost it. A tiny drop of water
fell from a fern that was surrounding the well, and it rippled the surface of the well’s
pool, blocking the view of the ‘whiteness’ that he’d briefly seen. In the final two lines,
the speaker muses upon what he may have seen there - was it Truth? Some deep,
complex insight into the nature of existence or reality? Or was it just a white pebble at
the bottom of the well? Either way, he says, at least he saw ‘something’ for once.
SPEAKER / VOICE
The speaker is an interesting character; he seems to be on a quest for knowledge, he
wants to expand his understanding of the world and the deeper experiences that are
difficult to find, but also that may be valuable or necessary both personally and for
society as a whole. He is undeterred by the criticism of others who ‘taunt’ him,
suggesting he has an independent spirit. Yet he is also aware of his own
egocentricity and narcissism, and the way that his search to find deeper meaning in
life mostly just reflects his own image back at him. We feel that he has repeated this
action of staring into the well many times, and most of the times before this he was
unable to see anything. One time, the quest to find what lies at the bottom of the
well - a metaphorical representation of the search for meaning in life - is not
fruitless: though he only glimpses a vague ‘whiteness’ in the depths of the water,
which he is unable to fully decipher or understand, the fact that he was able to see
anything at all is a comfort to him as it serves as reassurance that his actions are
worthwhile - that something lies beyond his currently limited perception of the
world. He seems to be willing to try again, and have the faith that he may one day
see even more.
LANGUAGE
● Extended metaphor - the act of the speaker searching for meaning in the
depths of the ‘well’ is a metaphorical representation of the search for meaning in
life. He has an intuition that something is there, and he cannot see it but trusts
that if he tries hard enough it may reveal itself to him. This is also characteristic
