The Death of the Hired Man || by Robert Frost || Robert Frost's Poem The Death of the Hired Man

 The Death of the Hired Man
                        -by Robert Frost

Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table,
Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step,
She ran on tiptoe down the darkened passage
To meet him in the doorway with the news
And put him on his guard. 'Silas is back'
She pushed him outward with her through the door
And shut it after her. 'Be kind,' she said.
She took the market things from Warren's arms
And set them on the porch, then drew him down
To sit beside her on the wooden steps.

When was I ever anything but kind to him?
But I'll not have the fellow back,' he said.
'I told him so last haying ,didn't I?
If he left then, I said , that ended it.
What good is he? who else will harbor him
At his age for the little he can do?
What help he is there's no depending on.
Off he goes always when I need him most
He thinks he ought to earn a little pay,
Enough at least to buy tobacco with,

So he won't have to beg and be beholden.

"All right," I say, " I can't afford to pay

Any fixed wages, though I wish I could."

"Someone else can." Then someone else will have to."

I shouldn't mind his bettering himself

If that what it was. you can be certain,

When he begins like that, there's someone at him

Trying to coax him off with pocket money-

In haying time, when any help is scarce.

In winter he comes back to us. I'm done.

'Sh! not so loud: he'll hear you,' Mary said.

'I want him to: he'll have to soon or late'' 

'He's worn out. He's asleep beside the stove.
When I came up from Rowe's I found him here,
Huddled against the barn door fast asleep,
A miserable sight, and frightening, too-
You needn't smile - I didn't recognize him-
I wasn't looking for him - and he's changed.
wait till you see.' 

'Where did you say he'd been?'

'He didn't say. I dragged him to the house,

And gave him tea and tried to make him smoke,

I tried to make him talk about his travels.

Nothing would do: he just kept nodding off.'

Source: Friends Classics, Robert Frost Selected Poems.