'By your leave'

I had for my winter evening walk—

No one at all with whom to talk,

But I had the cottages in a row

Up to their shining eyes in snow.

And I thought I had the folk within:

I had the sound of a violin;

I had a glimpse through curtain laces

Of youthful forms and youthful faces.

I had such company outward bound.

I went till there were no cottages found.

I turned and repented, but coming back

I saw no window but that was black.

Over the snow my creaking feet

Disturbed the slumbering village street

Like profanation, by your leave,

At ten o'clock of a winter eve.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) wrote this poem based on a walk he took in the winter of 2011-12 in Plymouth, N.H, where he had taken a job as a teacher at the Plymouth Normal School (now Plymouth State University). This was soon before he moved with his family to England, where he lived until 1915. He left little known but came back being considered a major poet.

Statue of Robert Frost at Plymouth State University.