Spoilers below. Please read the story first.
It started, as so many stories do, with my flailing around for an idea. The first line appeared suddenly, courtesy of some previously unconnected synapses. After that, the idea of composing a story around some small portion of Robert Frost’s poetry seemed like an interesting exercise. The conflict in the story is a common one in fiction and did not come from Frost.
These, in no particular order, are the Robert Frost poems alluded to in “A Late Walk”:
A Late Walk
The Road Not Taken
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Mending Wall
Desert Places
Never Again Would Birds’ Song be the Same
The Tuft of Flowers
The Death of the Hired Man
The Need of Being Versed in Country Things
The Sound of the Trees
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Birches
Acquainted with the Night
Fire and Ice
Canis Major
Home Burial
More allusions that I could have identified, not having read a lot of those. I got several of them, though.
The allusions lend a tone to this a little like that other story, “Rain“. It’s the slyness of the references, like the sly punning in the older story. I like them both.
Bryon, thanks for adding this link. I picked up the Frost allusions well enough to know he would appreciate your story.