| Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920. |
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| 17. Range-finding |
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| THE BATTLE rent a cobweb diamond-strung | |
| And cut a flower beside a ground bird’s nest | |
| Before it stained a single human breast. | |
| The stricken flower bent double and so hung. | |
| And still the bird revisited her young. | 5 |
| A butterfly its fall had dispossessed | |
| A moment sought in air his flower of rest, | |
| Then lightly stooped to it and fluttering clung. | |
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| On the bare upland pasture there had spread | |
| O’ernight ’twixt mullein stalks a wheel of thread | 10 |
| And straining cables wet with silver dew. | |
| A sudden passing bullet shook it dry. | |
| The indwelling spider ran to greet the fly, | |
| But finding nothing, sullenly withdrew. | |
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