The Poem "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"
This poem is layered with different meanings and it requires the reader to contemplate Frost's emotions behind the words. Like most of Frost's poems, "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" can be read on several level yet you can ignore them all and still enjoy the surface meaning. On the surface of this poem, it's talking about a man traveling through the woods with his horse and they stop near someone's house. The horse wants the man to continue but he wants to stay. Being in the woods causes the man to reflect on the larger tensions between duty; his "promises to keep"(13) and the desire to do what he wants. However, in order to fully understand the emotions and the deeper meanings within this poem, we'll analyze these three aspects of the poem: images, rhythms and meanings. This entire poem uses words that paint very vivid images of gorgeous winter, lovely dark woods and peacefulness, which inside causes a certain friction or tension. Also there is a sense of darkness in the poem, such as in the "darkest evening of the year"(8) and "The woods are lovely, dark and deep"(16). And the fact that the poem takes place in the isolated woods, there is a certain quality of peacefulness and stillness being portrayed as in the "f
Every word has a key role in the deeper meaning of the poem. Normally poems are shorter than other works. This makes each word of a poem extremely significant. Frost's major meaning seemed to be that one should take time to stop and notice the beauty around us but not to dawdle and dwell too long, as there is much to do in a lifetime. In the first stanza, "To watch his woods fill up with snow"(4), we see a man stopping in the forest to watch it fill up with snow. Here, the woods in the poem symbolize death. The woods and death are both looked at as very cold miserable things. Frost is trying to convey, through the picture of cold and dreary woods, that the man is contemplating suicide. At this point in the man's life, getting lost and dying in the woods seems easier than facing all of his troubles. In the next stanza, his horse is pulling at the reins bells trying to get him to leave the cold woods "He gives his harness bells a shake"(9). The horse is representing the side of ! him that wants to return and confront his troubles. In the following stanza, only serene thoughts are portrayed. Again, the man is pondering whether or not to stay in the deep and lonely woods. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep"(13). With this line, he is telling himself he would die in peace if he stayed within the depth of the silent woods. "But I have promises to keep,/ And miles to go before I sleep,/ And miles to go before I sleep"(14-16). These final lines
Some common words found in the essay are:
DDDD Besides, Snowy Evening, , AABA BBCB, lovely dark, contemplating suicide, easy wind, woods lovely dark, easy wind downy, wind downy flake11-12, woods lovely, understanding poem, actual feelings, wind downy, final lines, troubles stanza, downy flake11-12,
Approximate Word count = 976
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
