Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening 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 is 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. Robert Frost( 1874-1963) 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.

Setting: Frost wrote “ Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” while residing in the village of Franconia in the northwestern corner of Hampshire. It seems likely that woods near Franconia inspired him to write the poem and that Franconia is the village mentioned in line2. The time is “ the darkest evening of the year.” If by this phrase the speaker/ narrator means the longest night of the year- that is, the night with the most hours of darkness- then the day is either December 21 or 22. Characters: 1- The Observer( Speaker/Persona/ Narrator): A person traveling by a horse-drawn wagon ( or cart or carriage) on a rural road. The traveler stops to observe snow piling up in woods. 2- The horse: A small horse with a bell attached to its harness. It shakes its head, ringing the bell, to signal that it doesn’t understand why its master has stopped. 3- Owner of the Woods: A man who lives in a nearby village. He is mentioned in the first stanza of the poem.

The speaker ( presumably) a man, although no gender specified), while traveling on a horseback on the darkest evening of the year, stops to watch the woods fill up with snow. He thinks the owner of these woods is someone who lives in the village and will not see the speaker stopping on his property. While the speaker continues to gaze into the snowy woods, his little horse impatiently shakes the bells of its harness. The speaker describes the beauty and allure of the woods as “ lovely, Dark and deep”, but reminds himself that he must not remain there, for he has “promises to keep,” and a long journey a head of him. The poem explores the theme of the individual caught between nature and civilization. The speaker is drawn to the beauty and allure of the woods, which represent nature, but has obligations-“ promises to keep” which draw him away from nature and back to society and the world of men. However, some critics have interpreted the poem as a meditation on death- the woods represent the allure of death, perhaps suicide, which the speaker resists in order to return to the mundane tasks which order daily life. Critics also point out to the mood or tone of the poem, as created by its formal properties, as one of a person caught up in a reverie; the hypnotic quality of the repeated closing lines. Finally, the poem presents on of person’s momentary encounter with nature. When the narrator sees an appealing scene, woods filling with snow, he stops to observe. Why does this scene appeal to him? Because, he says, the woods are “lovely, dark , and deep.” Perhaps he wishes to lose himself in their silent mystery, away from the routine and regimen of everyday life- at least for a while. Maybe the woods remind him of his childhood, when he watched snow pile up in hopes that it would reach Alpine heights and cancel school and civilization for a day. Or perhaps they represent risk, mysteries of life and afterlife or that they represent sexual temptation: They are, after all. Lovely, dark and deep. Tar traveler might also regard the woods as the nameless, ordinary people who have great beauty within them but are ignored by others.