The land was ours before we were the land's

How timely a thing this is, readers of Frost's unexampled historical poem, The Gift Outright, will quickly discern:- The land was ours before we were the land's.

"The land was ours before we were the land's ..."

He had worked his way out of whatever limits of time & space New England had imposed on him, and could write with austere and touching grandeur about the American experience from a vantage point beyond it: The land was ours before we were the land's.