The Master Speed-Robert Frost

This is one of my favorite poems by Frost, a paradox of imagery. My favorite line, and one that I think describes marriage so completely, is "the power of standing still." A complete marriage is the one that has achieved the power of standing still. The mundane becomes the extraordinary, the old is continually given purpose and meaning as the two of you share the old together: old time, old china, old rituals. In that sharing, new life is given. Here is the poem for your consideration and enjoyment.

The Master Speed
By Robert Frost


No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have a speed far greater. You can climb
Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will.
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still—
Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you with a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar.