Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
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January 09, 2021
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By Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
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The Poet
Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially
published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of
rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural
life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical
themes. One of the most popular and critically respected American poets of the twentieth century, Frost was
honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's
rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution." He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in
1960 for his poetical works.
Introduction
In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Robert Frost contemplates death. The setting symbolizes death.
There's a "frozen lake" nearby a woods filled up with snow on the "darkest evening of the year." The speaker is
enchanted with the woods, death, and stops to ponder. The rhyme scheme, with one line of rhyme present in
each preceding stanza, mirrors the thought of death reaching into the speaker's thought. Although the woods
become inviting to the tired traveler, as death does for some, the speaker realizes he cannot yet stop and rest
because of his "promises" (14). The last two lines seems to be a lament at what lies ahead--a long life without
rest.
Frost's poetry often focuses on beautiful images—snow falling on quiet woods, gently swaying birch trees—
close readers of his poetry have often noted that his verse seems to hint at something darker. Poetry also
illuminated the darkness in Frost's own soul. The same guy who wrote "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening" could be depressed, jealous, vengeful, and unstable. His life was rocked by tragedies and the mental
illness and depression that ran through his family, afflicting his parents, his sister, his wife, and two of his six
children. Four of Frost's children died before he did.
His poems are about nature and the American Northeast, but they are also about darkness, about the thin line
that separates humans from the wild, our personalities from the darkness of the subconscious.
Summary
On the surface, this poem is simplicity itself. The speaker is stopping by some woods on a snowy evening. He
takes in the lovely scene in near-silence, is tempted to stay longer, but acknowledges the pull of obligations and
the considerable distance yet to be traveled before he can rest for the night.
.
The poem begins with the poet travelling through thick wilderness to reach his destination on the darkest
evening of the year. The beautiful dark woods mesmerize the poet and he stops his carriage to look at the trees
fill up with snow without worrying much about getting caught for this trespass as the owner lived far away in
the village. His horse, bewildered by the absence of a farmhouse near; shakes his harness bells questioningly as
if expressing his doubt regarding the poet‘s choice of place to stop at. This pulls the poet from his trance and he
takes his leave very shortly in spite of wanting dearly to revel a little more in the seductive charm of the woods.
He realizes that rest and indulgence in nature‘s beauty was something that he could not afford at that moment
since he had long distances to cover that night.
Beginning of the poem talked about woods. In the second stanza Frost refers back to the woods. Then in the
last stanza Frost mentions woods again. Even though the narrator has a long way to go, he always has enough
time to stop and watch the small thing in nature in detail. This goes to show that Frost‘s interest in nature is
very large, and he portrays this through his characters. He describes the woods as lovely, dark, and deep.
Death, to some, is lovely. It is definitely dark, and the grave is deep. When he is in the woods he is far away
from the city. The city can be considered a symbol of life. There is always a lot going on in a city. He knows
that it is not his time to die, and he cannot stay in the peaceful woods. His horse reminds him that it is not his
time to die by making noise and disturbing the serenity of his moment or death. At the end of the poem the line
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referring to miles before he can sleep lets the reader know that the narrator still has some time to continue his
life before his death. ‗Miles to go‘ also means something to do before his death.
Figures of Speech
Alliteration
Alliteration is, of course, the repetition of initial (beginning) consonant sounds, and examples of it can be found
in nearly every line of this poem. Note the examples of alliteration in the first stanza
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow
The consistent use of the initial -S, -Th, and -W sounds is alliteration. Notice that whose actually belongs with
the "H" words, since it is the sound and not the letters that create alliteration
Metaphor
Comparison of the sound of the bells to a questioning voice that asks whether there is a mistake
He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
Lines 1, 4, 7, 13: Some interpret the woods as an extended metaphor for death.
Personification
Personification is giving human qualities to something non-human or non-living, and the only real example of
it in this poem is the horse who can "think" and "ask."
My little horse must think it queer(…)
(..) To ask if there is some mistake.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is a little more difficult to find, because it is quite possible that what the speaker says is true;
The darkest evening of the year
It is the superlatives in the first one (darkest evening of the entire year) and the repetition of the second (miles
and miles) which suggest they are at least somewhat exaggerated.
Structure and Meter
The poem consists of four stanzas, each with four lines. (A four-line stanza is called a quatrain.) Each line in
the poem has eight syllables (or four feet). In each line, the first syllable is unstressed, the second is stressed,
the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on. Thus, the poem is in iambic tetrameter. An iamb is a
foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. A tetrameter is a line of poetry or verse
containing four feet.
The end rhyme in the poem is as follows
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First stanza, aaba
Second stanza, bbcb
Third stanza, ccdc
Fourth stanza, dddd
Symbols
Robert Frost's poem Stopping by the Woods symbolizes a journey of life and a movement towards death. Almost
every single element in the poem in that sense is symbolic of something. The cold and the dead of night and the
frozen lake in the woods, the 'darkest evening of the year' --all these elements build an ambiance where the
immanence of death is at odds with the indomitable spirit of love, as exemplified by the traveller.
The owner of the woods is referred to but his name has not been mentioned. This can be a reference to the mystic
and almost unnamable presence of god. The oath of the traveller to go on come what may, keeping his promises
before he has to submit to the final call of death, an eternal sleep of sorts. The end of the poem is thus replete with
philosophical symbolism.
Themes
Nature
Like many of Frost's poems, 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' deals with the contemplation of
nature. Many readers debate about whether or not the tone of the poem is calm and serene, or dark and
depressing. On the one hand, the speaker wants to take a moment to pause in a quiet spot to watch the snow
falling, perhaps to soothe his mind and contemplate nature. The pull of the woods could just be the solitude of
being alone and the lure of being free of responsibilities. Further ,this poem presents nature as a standard of
beauty that is so strong that it captures the speaker's attention and makes him or her halt whatever they are
doing. There are not many descriptive words used to convey what it is that the speaker finds so beautiful, only
"lovely," "dark" and "deep." Of these, "lovely‖ simply restates the whole idea of the poem, which most
readers would already have gotten a sense of from the speaker's tone and actions. The darkness of the woods
is an idea so important that it is mentioned twice in this poem, emphasizing a connection between beauty and
mystery. The emphasis on darkness is strange, and more obvious because the poem takes place on a snowy
evening, when the dominant impression would have been the whiteness blanketing everything.
Death
A darker interpretation of the poem addresses exhaustion with life and a longing for death. The speaker tells us
that it's 'the darkest evening of the year,' and the darkness, the isolated spot, and the cold, frozen lake don't
sound like a very inviting place to stop and commune with one's own thoughts (ll. 7-8). The season
of winter in literature is typically associated with death and darkness and the setting symbolizes death. There's
a "frozen lake" nearby a woods filled up with snow on the "darkest evening of the year." The speaker is
enchanted with the woods, death, and stops to ponder. The rhyme scheme, with one line of rhyme present in
each preceding stanza, mirrors the thought of death reaching into the speaker's thought. Although the woods
become inviting to the tired traveler, as death does for some, the speaker realizes he cannot yet stop and rest
because of his "promises" (14). The last two lines seems to be a lament at what lies ahead--a long life without
rest.
The deeper analysis is that frost is saying the woods are lovely, but being there is depressing. When he says
that he has promises to keep, it means that he either figured out what was bothering him or if he didn‘t, he at
least figured out that there‘s more to life and that he has things that he should do. When Frost says that he has
miles to go before he sleeps, he is saying that he has a lot of living to do before he dies. Frost wants to
emphasize the fact that he has a lot of living to do, so he repeats the line.
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