Robert Frost - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost – ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’

Another poem that I enjoyed by Robert Frost is the poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’.  This is a poem that I can visualize in my head.  Frost says that he wrote this poem in a single nighttime setting.  This poem describes the woods and it is very lovely but it attracts us with dark depths. This is a simple poem.  The speaker is stopping by some woods on a snowy evening and he taking in the lovely scene in near-silence.  The speaker is tempted to stay longer, but acknowledges the pull of obligations and the considerable distance yet to be traveled before he can rest for the night.  I believe that the last two lines of this poem have the strongest claim.  The first “And miles to go before I sleep” stays within the boundaries of literalness that is set forth by the rest of the poem.  The next line “And miles to go before I sleep” implies that the man has more to travel before he can stop and sleep.  When the poem says it last “miles to go” seems just like life; we have to keep going through life and the last “sleep” in the poem seems like he is speaking of death.  The woods in this poem are someone’s in particular and the owner of them live in the village.  The poem is not saying that the woods are terrible but that they are still unreasonable and that they are dark at night.  The woods are described as restful, seductive, lovely, dark, and deep.   The woods sit on the edge of civilization in one way or another.  “Society” would condemn for someone to stop here in the dark, in the snow.  At first the speaker credits society’s approach to the horse which is a bit odd for him to do.  Having the horse rebuke the speaker helps us to focus on some uniquely human features of the speaker’s dilemma.  One is the regard for beauty, the attraction to danger, the unknown, the dark mystery, and lastly may be related but noticeable is the possibility of a death wish.  Beauty by itself is an appropriate warning; an appropriate protection against the seduction is a refusal to give up on society regardless of the responsibilities it requires.  The last two lines should not imply a burden alone but perhaps that the ride home will be lovely.  The last two lines could also be referring to Frost’s career as a poet because at this time he had plenty of great poems left in him.  I see this poem as someone stopping to admire nature in life but knowing that they have to continue on because there are many more miles to travel until the end.  There are times that we stop and look at beautiful things but then we know that we must continue on because society will not let us stop forever.