It was originally written in 1933 and appeared in The American Mercury in April 1934,[1] before being collected in Frost's 1936 book A Further Range.
The Irish poet Seamus Heaney notes in his essay "Above the Brim" that the two poems also share a similar rhyme scheme.
[4] Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, in their book Understanding Poetry, interpret the poem to speak on behalf of faith and belief.
Other critics believe the poem embodies the skepticism evident within the New England tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
[8] Critic Judith Oster, for example, correlates the line "nothing to express" with Frost's own fear of a loss of creative output.