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.
Poem by Robert Frost
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is a poem by Robert Frost which discusses the conflict between the materialistic aspect and the spiritual aspect of man’s life. It is a narrative poem which is simple and easy to understand.
It is likely that the narrator is a wagon driver who transports goods to the market place or to the railway station for delivery. A man of responsibility.
The poem is set by a wood in the countryside on a dark evening in the winter season. The surrounding area is covered with snow and the narrator is all alone with his horse. The environment is quite peaceful.
The plot of this poem has only one encounter which is quite short and simple yet very strong in conveying the intended message. The narrator of the poem, who seems to be someone who drives a horse drawn wagon, happens to stop by a wood filled with snow while he is in the middle of his work or returning from work. He narrates his quick experience along with his stream of thoughts as a passer-by.
The poem starts with a mini monologue. He thinks to himself that he knows who owns the beautiful woods he stopped by. He is sure that the owner will not see him stop by to watch snow falling in the woods. Since this is not a usual place to stop having no farmhouse nearby, he assumes that his horse would feel it as strange. He remarks that someone who is in the usual flow of day-today activities would not stop by these woods in a dark, frozen atmosphere in winter.
The environment is tranquil and the narrator is immersed in the tranquil atmosphere. The soft sound of the breeze and the falling snow overrules the environment. It is disturbed only by a sudden bell sound made by the horse which brings the narrator back to the real world from his deep thoughts.
The narrator perceives that the woods are beautiful yet dark and deep. Nature is mysterious and can take you to the untouched corners in the deepest points of your inner self. However, reawakened by the sounds of the bells, he reminds himself of the responsibilities on his shoulders. He realizes that he is burdened so much with a lot of obligations to fulfill in life and therefore he cannot peacefully mingle with mother nature, rest and explore inner spiritualities despite his longingness to do so.
Theme of “Journey of Life” is one of the most discussed themes in “Stopping by Woods”. The poem discusses the true nature of life. Every being has to walk on a path which is full of uncertainties on your way. Every encounter in life is just a stop by. Despite all our desires and longings we need to move on until the end which you cannot decide.
“Darkest evening of the year …”
“darkest evening of the year” suggests the age of maturity in life which comes after going through the dawn and noon of life. After going through a lot in life, one may feel tired.
“And miles to go before I sleep”
“And miles to go before I sleep” means that there is yet a lot more to experience and gain in this life until death finds us. One can interpret it as, even if you are tired of life, you cannot rest as you wish. Life should go on until the day that nature determines you to peacefully mingle with it.
Usually, the coldness and the darkness in the winter season represent “death”. Silence equally contributes to the theme of death. The entire poem develops an atmosphere of coldness, darkness and silence which breaks only through the sound of harness bells. Harness Bells represents the presence of “Life”.
The farmhouse, the owner’s house in the village are things which are usually throbbing with life. The woods are located far from these lively aspects of life and people. Istead, the woods are located close to the frozen lake. The frozen lake again represents the theme of darkness. The “darkest evening” also suggests the theme of “death”.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep”
The narrator is drawn into the beauty of darkness, the feeling of coldness and the atmosphere of silence in the woods. The woods are lovely, yet dark and deep. Similarly “death” may represent “rest and peace” yet it is all unknown to the human being.
The only attribute that represents life is the sounds of bells and it awakens him from his attraction towards “death”.
The sounds of bells also stand for the “obligations” that keeps him alive and bound towards “life”. The bells remind him of the commitments or the promises he should keep.
“But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Theme of commitment in this poem is the center which pulls him back towards life. It is the bridge between life and death.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,”
Society and its norms and requirements keeps us from being close to nature. The woods are lovely, dark and deep and you find peace there. Your heart longs for rest and peace you find in nature.You can find peace and introspect on your inner spirituality only when you are free from bonds. Whereas, society has expectations for the speaker which is represented through “the promises”. Therefore there is a conflict between the materialistic world around you and your spiritual life.
On the other hand, great responsibilities may give hope to life and keep it going despite tiredness. You can be optimistic about life by focussing on the responsibilities on your way. Responsibilities can provide direction to life.
The dark woods filled with snow, the darkness, coldness and the silence may arouse pessimistic feelings towards life whereas the sound of the harness bells creates a ray of hope reminding of the responsibilities that keeps us going. Thus, the sounds of the bells symbolizes optimism.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost is written in a simple conversational language. It is a narrative poem with a simple incident through which life truths are explored. The poem has several themes and readers derive multiple meanings through this extremely indicative poem.
Though the poet uses a very simple language in his poem, the idea underneath is not direct. The poet conceals a lot of messages underneath the literal meaning we can see on the surface. Evidently, the poet compares and contrasts Nature along with Man and his society.
The poet addresses the aspect of nature as a seemingly “lovely” and attractive component. The speaker easily gets attracted and gets immersed in it. But the poet does not stop only saying that the “woods are lovely”, but he adds to it.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”
The poet brings out the hidden truth behind the powerful force of nature. If you dig deep, you will be dragged into the deepest and unrevealed points of its powers and the poet suggests that these powers are beyond our control.
The poet mocks at the limited insights of people about their power upon nature.
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 owner of the woods is unable to see his woods fill up with snow. He cannot either interfere with anyone who stops by his woods or control anything about the woods. On the other hand, though it is a fact that he owns the woods, his ownership towards nature is quite immaterial.
Where nature takes its full force, man’s society or civilization is not at all visible.
“His house is in the village though..”
“.....without a farmhouse near..”
The poet is convinced that nature is a mysterious source of power upon man whereas we are a tiny strand in it.
The poet draws a distinct line between the man-formed society and nature when the speaker stands alone between the woods and the frozen lake in the darkest evening of the year. The darkness and the dead silence in the surroundings create the atmosphere of the unknown and the unexplored. Man is but a stranger.
“Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.”
“The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake. “
It shows the utter loneliness man may feel amidst the presence of the gigantic and magnificent nature.
“He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.”
The sound of the harness bell is a question raised to the speaker whether he really belongs to these woods where nature exists in its pure form.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”
Though the woods are dark and deep, they are also beautiful.
“To watch his woods fill up with snow”
“...the sweep of easy wind and downy flake.”
The speaker’s primary intention is to look at the woods getting filled up with snow. He also enjoys the sound of the breeze as well as the falling snow flakes. Therefore, the speaker gets immersed in it unknowingly for a short while. Still, it is not his rightful place. Upon realization of this, the speaker comes back to reality and thinks of his role as a man of responsibilities.
“But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
On the other hand, the speaker is quite attracted to the solitude of nature and finds peace amidst the presence of it. However, it suggests that a man who is bound to the society and its demands is not free to solely behave as his or her heart desires. The poem shows a tragic conflict between the social obligations and man’s individual choices and desires of life.
The poem ends without an ending. As we read the last few lines, we see that the poet is still in a state of reconsideration or hesitation about his next move. He is lured by the beauty of nature yet reminded of his obligations.
With the use of the word “but” in the last stanza, the poet suggests that the speaker has to do otherwise. Therefore, the reader can interpret the last few lines as an indication of the speaker’s inability to choose what he really desires.
Sadly, he seems to have been compelled to take the path chosen by the society for him. However, this interpretation may depend on the reader’s point of view on this highly suggestive poem.
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.
A wagon driver stops by a woods on his way to somewhere, probably to work and remarks that the woods are owned by someone from the village known to him and that he lives far away so that he won’t see the speaker stopping to see the snow falling at his woods.
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.
The speaker thinks to himself that his horse would find it strange that he stopped by a dark woods instead of stopping by a farmhouse. He notices that it is one of the darkest evenings of the year in the winter season and what lies there is only the dark woods and the frozen lake.
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 environment is drowned in a deep silence and the narrator can hear only the sounds of the wind and the fall of soft snow flakes falling down. All of a sudden, the horse shakes its harness. The sound of the bell awakens the speaker from his stream of thoughts. The speaker thinks that his horse shakes his harness bells to ask whether he stopped by the woods mistakenly .
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.
Awakened by the sounds of the bells, the speaker thinks to himself that the woods are beautiful yet dark and deep and he would love to rest there. However, despite everything, he realizes that he should move forward since he has to fulfill a lot of obligations in life before he could rest as he wishes.
The poet has used a simple language in a simple style. He appropriately blends the simplicity of the language with the simplicity of its rhythm.
The poet creates visual imagery using descriptive words employed in the right place. Use of adjectives such as “My little”, “frozen”, “easy”, “downy”, “lovely”, “dark” and “deep” are very effective in serving the purpose. The superlative form “the darkest” creates the intended image.
“Woods fill up with snow”
“My little horse”
“ Between the woods and frozen lake”
“The darkest evening of the year”
“..the sweep of easy wind and downy flakes.”
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”
The poem has an AABA rhyming scheme except for the last stanza where the last word of each line rhymes with each other. However, the rhyme of the third line of each stanza is used in the 1st, 2nd and 4th stanza creating a chain rhyme. The rhyming pattern of the entire poem can be explained as AABA BBCD CCDC and DDDD.
Repetition of the following lines gives much emphasis to the idea of distance that he should march before he could rest. The idea of a long distance is depicted through the repetition of the words”miles to go” which is pronounced with stress here.
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
The repetition of sound “s” brings out alliteration and the reader is able to hear the sounds of the gingles of the bells.
“He gives his harness bells a shake….”
“My little horse ….”
“He gives his harness bells a shake..”
The horse here obtains a special place in the narrator’s story. The horse is the only companion of whose company seems to mean a lot to him. The horse is lifted up to a friend or more like a child to the narrator by using the words such as “little” and “his”.
The words used in the first two stanzas have soft sounds such as “h”, “w”, “th” to portrait the tranquil atmosphere of the surroundings as well as the stream of thoughts of the narrator. It creates a soft mood. Towards the last two stanzas, the poet uses a lot of “s” sounds to represent the “shake” of the bells and “d” sound to represent deeper thoughts. Accordingly, the mood changes into a serious and deeper one.
Robert Frost once said “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom”. This poem too follows the same rule. On the surface, the poet shows that the owner of the woods or the little horse are unable to see the beauty of the woods and the speaker is able to admire the wonders of nature. Using poetic imagery and many other techniques as discussed above, the poet creates a delightful picture and finally disseminates a valuable message that brings in wisdom to the reader. It brings out a deeper reflection of life.
The poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is written by Robert Frost who is an American poet born in 1874 and died in 1965. He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry many times and is also known as “The Bard of New England”. This poem was written in 1922 and published in 1923 in his “New Hampshire” volume. The poet claims that this beautiful poem was written “in just a few minutes without strain”. It is one of his most famous poems in this collection.
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