{
 "id": "robert-frost/a-fountain-a-bottle-a-donkeys-ears-and-some-books",
 "title": "A Fountain, a Bottle, a Donkey’s Ears and Some Books",
 "poet": "Robert Frost",
 "poet_slug": "robert-frost",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "New Hampshire",
 "book_slug": "new-hampshire",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 13,
 "container": "Notes",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1923,
  "venue": "New Hampshire (1923)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/newhampshirepoem00fros_0",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58611",
   "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7008086"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-frost_new-hampshire",
  "file": "new-hampshire.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58611",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000433611"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 146,
  "n_stanzas": 34,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 9
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Old Davis owned a solid mica mountain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Dalton that would some day make his fortune.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’d been some Boston people out to see it:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And experts said that deep down in the mountain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mica sheets were big as plate glass windows.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’d like to take me there and show it to me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I’ll tell you what you show me. You remember",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You said you knew the place where once, on Kinsman,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The early Mormons made a settlement",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And built a stone baptismal font outdoors⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Smith, or some one, called them off the mountain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To go West to a worse fight with the desert.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You said you’d seen the stone baptismal font.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well, take me there.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Some day I will.”",
    "indent": 8
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Today.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Huh, that old bath-tub, what is that to see?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let’s talk about it.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Let’s go see the place.”",
    "indent": 8
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“To shut you up I’ll tell you what I’ll do:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll find that fountain if it takes all summer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And both of our united strengths, to do it.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You’ve lost it, then?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Not so but I can find it.",
    "indent": 9
   },
   {
    "text": "No doubt it’s grown up some to woods around it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mountain may have shifted since I saw it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In eighty-five.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“As long ago as that?”",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“If I remember rightly, it had sprung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A leak and emptied then. And forty years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can do a good deal to bad masonry.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You won’t see any Mormon swimming in it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But you have said it, and we’re off to find it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old as I am, I’m going to let myself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be dragged by you all over everywhere⁠—”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I thought you were a guide.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I am a guide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that’s why I can’t decently refuse you.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We made a day of it out of the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ascending to descend to reascend.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The old man seriously took his bearings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spoke his doubts in every open place.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We came out on a look-off where we faced",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cliff, and on the cliff a bottle painted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or stained by vegetation from above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A likeness to surprise the thrilly tourist.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Well, if I haven’t brought you to the fountain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At least I’ve brought you to the famous Bottle.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I won’t accept the substitute. It’s empty.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“So’s everything.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I want my fountain.”",
    "indent": 7
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I guess you’d find the fountain just as empty.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And anyway this tells me where I am.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Hadn’t you long suspected where you were?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You mean miles from that Mormon settlement?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look here, you treat your guide with due respect",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you don’t want to spend the night outdoors.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I vow we must be near the place from where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The two converging slides, the avalanches,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Marshall, look like donkey’s ears.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We may as well see that and save the day.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Don’t donkey’s ears suggest we shake our own?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For God’s sake, aren’t you fond of viewing nature?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You don’t like nature. All you like is books.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What signify a donkey’s ears and bottle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "However natural? Give you your books!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well then, right here is where I show you books.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come straight down off this mountain just as fast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As we can fall and keep a-bouncing on our feet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s hell for knees unless done hell-for-leather.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Be ready,” I thought, “for almost anything.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We struck a road I didn’t recognize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But welcomed for the chance to lave my shoes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In dust once more. We followed this a mile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps, to where it ended at a house",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I didn’t know was there. It was the kind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bring me to for broad-board panelling.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I never saw so good a house deserted.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Excuse me if I ask you in a window",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That happens to be broken,” Davis said.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The outside doors as yet have held against us.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I want to introduce you to the people",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who used to live here. They were Robinsons.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You must have heard of Clara Robinson,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The poetess who wrote the book of verses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And had it published. It was all about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The posies on her inner window sill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the birds on her outer window sill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And how she tended both, or had them tended:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She never tended anything herself.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She was ‘shut in’ for life. She lived her whole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life long in bed, and wrote her things in bed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll show you how she had her sills extended",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To entertain the birds and hold the flowers.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our business first’s up attic with her books.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We trod uncomfortably on crunching glass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through a house stripped of everything",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Except, it seemed, the poetess’s poems.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Books, I should say!⁠—if books are what is needed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A whole edition in a packing-case,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, overflowing like a horn of plenty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or like the poetess’s heart of love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had spilled them near the window toward the light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where driven rain had wet and swollen them.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enough to stock a village library⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unfortunately all of one kind, though.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They had been brought home from some publisher",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And taken thus into the family.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Boys and bad hunters had known what to do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With stone and lead to unprotected glass:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shatter it inward on the unswept floors.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How had the tender verse escaped their outrage?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By being invisible for what it was,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or else by some remoteness that defied them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find out what to do to hurt a poem.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet oh! the tempting flatness of a book,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To send it sailing out the attic window",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till it caught the wind, and, opening out its covers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tried to improve on sailing like a tile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By flying like a bird (silent in flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But all the burden of its body song),",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only to tumble like a stricken bird,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lie in stones and bushes unretrieved.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Books were not thrown irreverently about.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They simply lay where some one now and then,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Having tried one, had dropped it at his feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left it lying where it fell rejected.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here were all those the poetess’s life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had been too short to sell or give away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Take one,” Old Davis bade me graciously.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Why not take two or three?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Take all you want.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good-looking books like that.” He picked one fresh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In virgin wrapper from deep in the box,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And stroked it with a horny-handed kindness.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He read in one and I read in another,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both either looking for or finding something.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The attic wasps went missing by like bullets.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I was soon satisfied for the time being.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All the way home I kept remembering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The small book in my pocket. It was there.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The poetess had sighed, I knew, in heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At having eased her heart of one more copy⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Legitimately. My demand upon her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though slight, was a demand. She felt the tug.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In time she would be rid of all her books.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}