STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY

EVENING
Stanza wise summary
Stanza 1:
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 first stanza documents the narrator’s first response upon entering the woods. Going by the
repertoire of Frost’s subject matter, it is safe to assume that the woods belong to the English
countryside. The narrator says that he thinks he is aware of the ownership of the woods and that the
owner has his home in the village, away from the wilderness. With the very first line, it becomes
clear to the readers that the narrator exercises no proprietorship over the woods. The third line of the
stanza gives the readers a slight indication that the narrator might be trespassing – “He will not see
me stopping here”. This musing of the narrator makes us wonder whether the owner would have had
a problem with someone randomly stopping at his woods if he were present at the scene to notice the
same. With the words “fill up with snow’, the poet draws a beautiful picture of snow-flakes
spreading across the wilderness. The word ‘his’ in the last line opens a window of meaning. Frost
could have used the article ‘the’ but instead, he chooses to use ‘his’ to indicate the fact that the
narrator has no scruples against enjoying the beauty of something which does not belong to him.

Stanza 2:
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 second stanza speaks about the absurdity of the act of stopping in the middle of woods on a
really cold night. This act of the poet perplexes his horse. Having travelled with his master quite a
bit, the horse is used to stopping only when there is a farmhouse near in order to take rest after a long
period of travel. Hence, the horse finds it a rather absurd act on the part of the narrator to stop when
there is no scope of rest. As readers, it is hard to say whether the horse, being just an animal really
thought all of this. Maybe the narrator himself considered his act of stopping on his journey without
any purpose strange and tried to convey the strangeness of his actions by speaking about it as if they
could be the horse’s thoughts. The third line paints a picture of the geography of the location in
which the poet is stopping – there are trees around and also a frozen lake. The fact that the lake is
frozen reveals that it is high wintertime. This information gets stressed in the last line of the poem
when the narrator declares that it “the darkest evening of the year”. In other words, it is the peak of
winter.

Stanza 3:
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.

This stanza highlights the silence of the night. The narrator’s horse shakes his harness which leads
the bells on it to give out a jingling sound. The horse does so as a means to inquire after why the poet
has stopped in the absence of a farmhouse. Apart from the sound of the bells, the poet can also hear
the sound of the flowing wind and that of the soft snowflakes falling on the ground. The words, ‘only
other’ accentuate the silence of the night. The night is so quiet that one can hear the wind flow and
the flakes fall. Such a deep silence is also an indication of the solitude which the narrator must be
experiencing during his moments in the woods.

Stanza 4:
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.

In the final stanza, the poet talks about the beauty of the woods and the sense of duty of the narrator.
He says that the wilderness is lovely, dark, and deep. The darkness of the winter night is enhancing
the charm of the woods in the narrator’s eyes and the density of the woods due to a large number of
trees in it, makes it a pleasure to just stand and perceive the beauty of the woods. However, from the
second line itself the narrator makes it very clear that although the woods are extremely enchanting,
he cannot stop enjoying the pleasures which it has to offer. This is because the narrator
has ‘promises to keep’. Promises here stands for any commitments that the poet might have made. It
is clear that the poet is on his way to somewhere.

Critical Analysis
On the outset, the poem Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening appears to be the musings of a
lone traveller on the beauty of snow-filled woods on a wintery night. This is juxtaposed with his
awareness of time constraints that restrict him from giving in to the beauty of Nature due to his sense
of duty. However, after delving deeper into the poem we realize that the poem is a microcosm of a
very common situation which we all come across at different points in our lives. It is an
exemplification of those times when we are tempted to just sit back and relax; to just take a back-seat
in our own lives to appreciate the small joys and pleasures that life has to offer but can’t because of
all the work-load that always ties us down.
In spite of being written in an older century, this poem is all the more relevant to the life of the
21st Century when life moves at a cosmic pace and we always have someplace to get to or some
pressing work breathing down our necks. While leading this busy lifestyle, there come those times
when we just want to give it all up to rejuvenate and enjoy life. However, our pressing sense of duty
gives us a reality check and we realize that there is no time for relaxation unless we get done with all
the work that life has assigned to us. The constant tussle between pleasure and duty which makes up
our life is the crux around which the poem revolves. Through this poem, Robert Frost directly speaks
to all of us stuck in a similar situation in our lives and sympathizes with us through his narrator who
is going through a similar dilemma. Frost assures us that if we feel like we are losing out on the
small pleasures of life because of our sense of duty and responsibilities, we are not alone and there
are many like us. The poet seems to be telling us that it is all right if certain moments of joy and
beauty are slipping out of our hands because in life duties and responsibilities should always come
first. There will always be time to relax and enjoy once we are done with a fair share of work.
Relaxation and indulgences will seem much better then because we will not have the guilt of wasting
time staining our enjoyment. Hence, it can be said that through his narrator, Robert Frost offers
encouragement to the ones who are in the dog years of their life. It is lovely to notice how such an
important philosophy of life is being imparted by the poem through the use of very simple words and
a very simple situation. The brevity of the poem indeed belies its profundity.
Although Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening cannot be classified under Nature Poetry, it
abounds in wonderful Nature Imagery. The poem offers a beautiful pen-picture of snow-filled woods
that look nothing short of breath-taking on a lovely winter night. These woods are so enchanting that
they have the power to lull a person’s sense of duty temporarily and make him stop work in order to
bask in the beauty of Nature.

Another interpretation of the poem could be that the speaker is towards the end of his life – “the
darkest evening of the year”. Winter is usually associated with death. Hence, at this juncture of his
life, the speaker wants to make his life productive with a last burst of activity instead of giving in to
the quietness and serenity which old age is usually associated with. The speaker is tempted to just let
go of work and enjoy life. However, he reminds himself just in time that he must not listen to his
desire to rest since rest is all he will get after death. He ends the poem with the recurring thought that
he still has a lot to accomplish in life.

Figures of speech and poetic devices

Robert Frost’s poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ uses the following poetic devices
and figures of speech-

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the beginning of nearby words.

“He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.”

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”

Personification

Personification is attribution of human characteristics to non-human objects.

“My little horse must think it queer”

“He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake”

In the above lines the horse has the ability to think like humans and to ask if there is a mistake.
 Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement. ‘Fill up with snow’ to mean the snow-covered woods is a
deliberate exaggeration from the poet.

“To watch his woods fill up with snow.”

Repetition
Repetition is used only in the poem's final two lines. While repetition can serve any number of
purposes in poetry, it is often assumed that repeated lines are important and deserve special
consideration.

“And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.”

Imagery
Imagery is the name given to the elements in a poem that sparks the senses. It need not be only
visual, but can relate any of five senses.

Symbolism
There are many possible symbols in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." The central one is
that of the speaker’s journey, which may symbolize travel through life, while the woods themselves
represent mystery and danger but also peace and distraction from the travails ahead.

Enjambment
The continuation of a sentence (in verse) without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
In the first three quatrains, there is at least one enjambment in each stanza. This continuation from
one line to the next allows for fluid, dream-like descriptions.
“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.”