Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh fast,
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it, it is theirs;
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less;
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their desert places,
Between stars - on stars, where no human race is;
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

Robert Frost