Stopping by Woods

Introduction of Robert Frost : 

Robert Lee Frost was a famous American poet. He is well-known for his realistic representations of rural life and his knowledge of American vernacular. In his work, he frequently employed settings from early twentieth-century New England's country life to address complex social and philosophical issues. Frost was a famous and highly quoted poet and won four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

Lyrics of the 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.   

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.

The narrator of the poem has stopped by for a brief moment amid a snowy evening in the woods, transfixed by the mesmerizing scenes unfolding. As he takes a moment to indulge in a dosage of naturalistic beauty, he’s torn between staying in the woods and heading home. As readers explore the motivations and hidden inclinations, the poem gets intriguing and a clever play on words renders a diverse meaning. Robert Frost has a penchant for selecting two roads as was the case in ‘The Road Not Taken’ where the narrator again arrives at crossroads, deciding his permanent choice.

The narrator is spell-bounded by the momentary distraction from worldly responsibilities, allowing himself a moment of peace. Being naturalistic to the core, Robert Frost grounds his character in a forest, mesmerized by the snowy evening. The poet mildly indicates the presence of a human close by, albeit in-doors, oblivious to the passerby.

The woods for the narrators are immensely thick, dark, and stand in all their glory. More so, the poet paints an image, etched in natural beauty, drawing deep sensory emotions from the reader. The woods are blanketed in thick snow, amplifying its beauty factor. The narrator voices his concern about losing his way through the woods since it gets immensely dark at night-time, he decides to better get a move on.

Structure of the poem 

The poem, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ is composed in iambic tetrameter, pioneered by Edward Fitzgerald. All the respective verses conform to the a-a-b-a rhyming scheme. On the whole, the rhyme scheme follows the pattern of aaba-bbcb-ccdc-dddd convention.

Moreover, the second verse solidifies the rhyming structure of the poem. As is mentioned above, the poem is written in A / A / B / A style, with the first line of each stanza rhyming with the third line of the one previous — in this case, “here” and “queer.” This is a simple structure that flows very nicely and makes the read easier and more pleasant.