{
 "id": "robert-frost/the-wood-pile",
 "title": "The Wood-Pile",
 "poet": "Robert Frost",
 "poet_slug": "robert-frost",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "North of Boston",
 "book_slug": "north-of-boston",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 16,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1914,
  "venue": "North of Boston (1914)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7057510"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-frost_north-of-boston",
  "file": "north-of-boston.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3026",
   "https://archive.org/details/northboston00frosgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Out walking in the frozen swamp one grey day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I paused and said, “I will turn back from here.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No, I will go on farther⁠—and we shall see.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hard snow held me, save where now and then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One foot went down. The view was all in lines",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straight up and down of tall slim trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too much alike to mark or name a place by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So as to say for certain I was here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A small bird flew before me. He was careful",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To put a tree between us when he lighted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And say no word to tell me who he was",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who was so foolish as to think what he thought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought that I was after him for a feather⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The white one in his tail; like one who takes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Everything said as personal to himself.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One flight out sideways would have undeceived him.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then there was a pile of wood for which",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I forgot him and let his little fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carry him off the way I might have gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without so much as wishing him good-night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He went behind it to make his last stand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was a cord of maple, cut and split",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And piled⁠—and measured, four by four by eight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And not another like it could I see.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No runner tracks in this year’s snow looped near it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it was older sure than this year’s cutting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or even last year’s or the year’s before.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wood was grey and the bark warping off it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What held it though on one side was a tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These latter about to fall. I thought that only",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could so forget his handiwork on which",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He spent himself, the labour of his axe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And leave it there far from a useful fireplace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To warm the frozen swamp as best it could",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the slow smokeless burning of decay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}