The poem features 12 quatrains, each with the rime scheme, ABCB.
Quatrains 1-3: “A neighbor of mine in the village”
Robert Frost’s speaker in “A Girl’s Garden” is recounting a conversation he had once with “a neighbor of mine in the village.” The woman, according to the speaker, is fond of telling about “a childlike thing” she did when she lived on a farm.
She asked her father, one spring, if she could have a small portion of land to plant her own garden, a suggestion to which the father was agreeable.
The father looks over his farm and finally locates just the right spot. The plot is “walled-off” and at one time “a shop had stood” there.
Quatrains 4-6: “And he said, “That ought to make you”
The father tells his daughter that that plot he had selected should be just right for her; it should “make [her] / An ideal one-girl farm.” The father further adds that by working that plot she could strengthen her arms.
The father also determined that the plot was too small to plough; thus, she had to dig it up and get the dirty ready by hand. But she was very enthusiastic about the task and did not mind all that work.
The woman recounts that she transported the fertilizer in a wheelbarrow along the road to her plot of land, but the smell of the “dung” always made her run away.
Quatrains 7-9: “And hid from anyone passing”
She would hide lest anyone see her fleeing the dung smell. Then she acquired some seeds to plant, and she “thinks she planted one / Of all things” except weeds.
She plants “potatoes, radishes, lettuce, peas / Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn, / And even fruit trees.” And even though she planted only one of each, that is still a lot for such a small plot of land.
She reports that today there is a “cider apple tree” growing in the plot that she suspects might be from her planting experience.
Quatrains: 10-12
She admits that she did reap many different crops but not much of each.
Now, when the woman observes the successful gardens grown on small plots in the village, she recounts how she once grew a fine garden on a small plot of land.
The speaker is delighted and probably astounded that the woman never repeats her story to “the same person twice,” as most nostalgic seniors are wont to do.
 |
