Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
The poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening was authored by Robert Frost in the year 1922. It was then published in the year 1924. The poem conveys the story of a man traveling through the snowy woods during the darkest dusk of the year. He is kind of deep in love with whatever he observes around him. He is on the way returning to town, though he cannot separate himself far away from those dark and lovely woods. The situation seems to be changeling to the speaker since he must attend to “…promises to keep…” which drives him far away from nature to the society as well as men’s world, even though he is attracted to the allure and beauty of woods that represents nature (Pilkington 32).
The poem manages to transmit subtle even though deep questions concerning life, death, as well as our connection with the natural world. Frost message in this poem is that people need to create time in reconnecting with nature before going back to their obligations and daily lives even if it is briefly (Pilkington 44). The poem has four stanzas and a quatrain since it has four lines in each stanza, it also has stressed syllables with a regular rhythm that is maintained in all the stanzas of the poem. This indicates a slow-moving horse’s plod. The poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” considers meditation of nature. This creates the theme of nature and vivid imagery. The pulling of woods can be the state of being alone and the decoy of becoming free from responsibilities.

This may also imply a spirit of adventure as well as attraction to danger as postulated in line thirteen, “The ‘darkness’ and ‘depth’ of the wood (Pilkington 37). It is clear that the speaker in the poem is in need of experiencing new things as well as places. For instance, his community, his family, and his work hinder him from moving off to explore dark adventures which are also dangerous (Kennedy and Dana 27). This gives us a simple interpretation that work must become the priority before play. Therefore, the title horse by shaking his bells show postulates that “We have places to go.” In line ten, we cannot just stand aimlessly just to see how the snow falls “there is a duty to be performed.
Frost has used imagery to create a symbol which helps convey a deeper interpretation of the story and also to do much of the plea to the sense of the reader. In this poem, imagery is used to indicate the quiet with greatly peaceful scene experienced by the man and his horse. The very compelling reason attempts to combine as more senses as desirable to assist the reader in figuring out the scenes. Then in this specific scene, we may visually observe the “lovely dark and deep” in line thirteen. We can also hear the “harness bells” (Kennedy and Dana 29). As illustrated on the ninth line.
The poet has used the rhyme scheme in this poem which plays an important part as they support to the opposites of stopping or moving on a major theme. In the third line of the first three stanzas, no rhyme matches the first two lines and the last line of each stanza. This third line affect the flow of rhymes as seen in other lines. Although the third line connects to next stanzas and also supports a momentum. The poem has a flow in all the lines. This poem’s rhyme scheme is aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd. This helps to create a lyrical feeling. Frost has also used alliteration whereby there is a repetition of the initial consonant sounds (Pilkington 44). For instance in line one, ”Whose woods…” line two, “His house…” line four, “…watch his wood fill up with…” in the ninth line” He gives his harness…” and line thirteen “…dark and deep (Kennedy and Dana 31). The use of this sounds has helped in creating a beautiful, musical rhythm, and pleasant sound to the reader or the listener.
Frost mostly focuses on the theme of nature. He also shows how the speaker’s responsibilities keep him away from stopping as well as enjoying the beautiful nature. He nearly envies the heritor of the woods. The speaker holds on his piece of land even though he lives in town. This indicates that the owner is not grateful for whatever he owns. This is shown in lines one and two (Pilkington 44).
“Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.”
Apart from the theme of nature, there are also some major themes like isolation and responsibility. There is a theme of isolation in the first stanza and also in the second stanza where it is elaborated. The speaker is on the journey alone and it looks like he enjoys to be alone since isolating himself from the people makes him feel okay.
There is also the theme of responsibility which is indicated at the start and the end of the poem. At the beginning of this poem, we may have a feeling that he speaker may be irresponsible and somehow reckless because he is trespassing on the private property which belongs to someone. In line three and four (Kennedy and Dana 36)
“He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods feel up with the snow.”
The speaker is also responsible where it indicated that he has to go back home to perform his duty concerning his community, family and his work. He takes his responsibility first then the adventures later. “But I have the promise to keep, and miles to go before I sleep” (Kennedy and Dana 40).
Work Cited
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. An introduction to fiction. Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 5th Edition Backpack Literature, 2010.
Pilkington, Adrian. “A relevance theory perspective.” Literary Pragmatics (Routledge Revivals) (2014): 44.