Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and Mending Wall

A detailed Summary of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and Mending Wall

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "Mending Wall"

An Analysis of Two Robert Frost Works.

James Allen once said, "You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." After reading the two Robert Frost poems, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and Mending Wall, one can not help to wonder what kinds of thoughts inspired these two poems. It becomes clear that the underlying theme in both of these poems is simply freedom of thought. These free thoughts give a person the capability to live how he chooses.

In the first poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost vividly describes a freedom that many of us take for granted. He tells how he has decided to take the time to stop what he is doing and admire the snow as it falls in the woods and on a frozen lake. The man who owns these woods lives in the town and is ignorant of the beauty that they contain. He has not taken the time to notice how beautiful they are as the snow comes down. The owner of the woods, we'll call him Bob, lives in the town and is busy living his life in the town. Bob will not notice because he takes for granted the fact that he is able to go look at the woods much like the author. "Wh

In the second poem, Mending Wall, Frost talks of the wall he and his neighbor erected between their properties. The wall gives him something to take care of, something to complain about, and something to talk about with his neighbor. At the same time this wall provides him with a degree of privacy. On the other hand, the wall creates a sense of captivity. By acting as the wall it is, it limits his freedom. Freedom seems to fight against the wall. Freedom can be thought of as the force that keeps destroying the wall every spring. New life is forcing its way through the rocks but the man feels threatened by this new life and the uncertainties of freedom and therefore reconstructs his wall to keep it contained. They both act like the wall is a necessity though there is no real urgency for it. Then he says he really does not know why he has built this wall in the first place. "Why do they [walls] make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense." The author is not afraid of the outside world and he is not afraid of his neighbor. However, the freedom that breaks down the wall every spring is halted. The wall, though it serves no function is reconstructed every spring and only manages to isolate him from the freedoms he desires. Everyone else enjoys their freedom, but he is kept captive by the wall. In the quote I used at the beginning of the paper, it said that you only get to where you are willing to take your thoughts. In the case of the man who is too afraid to tell his neighbor to let down his walls and let others go in, he won't allow his thoughts to make him free.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Wall Frost, Evening Frost, Bob Bob, Robert Frost, Mending Wall, James Allen, woods fill snow, lives town, watch woods, woods fill, fill snow, Stopping Woods, Snowy Evening, Woods Snowy, woods snowy evening, woods snowy, owns woods, robert frost, woods lives town, stopping woods, stopping woods snowy, snowy evening, watch woods fill, woods lives, Evening Mending,

Approximate Word count = 1170
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English