Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening for IX std

Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" is one of the best known American poems, telling the symbolic tale of a winter journey.

Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” is a narrative poem told in the first voice, written in 1922. The poem describes the author’s journey while traveling on horseback one winter night. The phrases “his woods fill up with snow” and “to stop without a farmhouse near” describe the author’s isolated surroundings and the seasonal weather.

The only other person in the poem is not present or named but is just referred to as “he” or “his.” The reference to “my little horse” describes the author’s mode of transportation while “darkest night of the year” describes both the time of day and also suggests that it is the Winter Solstice.

The style of the poem is one of calm and solitude for the author is alone on his horse on a snowy evening where “the only other sound is the sweep of easy wind and downy flake,” and snow is known to have a dampening or insulating effect on sound. There is no indication that the horse makes any noise except for “his harness bells,” making it the perfect mode of transportation on a quiet winter night.

A Journey Through the Woods, and Through Life

The theme of this poem is a journey, and not simply a journey through the woods but perhaps through life itself. There is an expectant tone throughout the poem. The author stops for a brief time to meditate and realizes he needs to continue on his journey through the woods and his journey through life.

Frost’s famous phrase “And miles to go before I sleep” not only refers to the physical distance of the trip but also that he still has a long life ahead of him. Sleep often symbolizes death, and the author seems to suggest that his life journey is far from over. Many authors have used sleep as a symbol or metaphor for death, like William Shakespeare in the often-quoted line from Hamlet, “To sleep, per chance to dream.” “I have promises to keep” indicates that the traveler still has tasks to complete before his death.

Themes of Nature and Religion

Nature and religion are additional themes in this poem. Objects from nature such as woods, lake, snow, and wind are named. The “shortest evening” of the year corresponds with the Winter Solstice and marks the months ahead leading up to nature’s season of spring, marked by new birth and beginnings. The description of the woods as “lovely, dark and deep” evokes images of a vast forest and a rich life.

References to God come quickly in the first stanza with “Whose woods these are I think I know” and “His house is in the village though.” Most villages contain a church, or “God’s house.” Since God made the world, the woods and nature belong to Him. The final line, “And miles to go before I sleep,” is repeated twice to emphasize the importance of living a full life.

Poetic Style

This poem is written in formal grammatical style. Frost does not use slang, only proper vocabulary. He mostly maintains normal subject and verb sequences with a few exceptions. One phrase deviates from correct grammar with the omission of a verb in “the darkest evening of the year.” The author has reversed the sentence structure in the first two lines. These lines could have been written “I think I know whose woods these are” and “though he lives in the village.” However, Frost’s word order makes the poem more interesting as well as adhering to the rhyming scheme.

The rhythm of this poem is iambic tetrameter with every line consisting of four stressed and unstressed syllables. In each stanza the final words of each line rhyme, with the exception of the third line. The third line sets up the rhyme for the next stanza, “know,” “though,” “here,” and “snow” end the lines of the first stanza while “queer,” “near,” “lake,” and “year” end the second stanza. Robert Frost followed a closed structure when composing this poem by writing each stanza in quatrains adhering to a static rhyming scheme.

The poem is a favorite English language work. The house where Frost wrote it is now a museum in South Shaftsbury, Vermont, the Robert Frost Stone House Museum, just a short drive away from the poet’s gravesite in Bennington. Ironically, Frost wrote the poem on a hot summer day, and due to severe weather in the region the house is closed to the public during the winter months.