Desert places

Desert places 

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast,

in a field I looked into going past,

and the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it – it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent -spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness

will be more lonely ere it will be less –

a blanker whiteness of benighted snow

with no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

between stars – on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

to scare myself with my own desert places.

Robert Frost