Analysis of "stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Analysis of

"Stopping by woods on a snowy evening"

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a very well know poem by Robert Frost. The poem appears to be very simple, but it has a hidden meaning to it. The simple words and rhyme scheme of the poem gives it an easy flow, which adds to the calmness of the poem. The rhyme scheme (aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd) and the rhythm (iambic tetrameter) give the poem a solid structure. The poem is about the speaker’s experience of stopping by the dark woods in the winter evening with his horse and admiring the beauty of the fresh fallen snow in the forest. Then, the speaker projects himself into the mind of his horse, speculating about his horse’s practical concerns and the horse communicates by shaking his harness bells, and his head impatiently wanting to continue the homeward journey forward. The speaker also tells that he would like to stay but he has to continue home to take care of all the responsibilities before he can die peaceful.

In the first stanza, I think that the speaker is familiar with the land; he knows the individual who “owns” the woods; but that owner doesn’t live on this land instead he lives in the village. The speaker implies that he is trespassing someone’s property but he doesn’t need to worry because that person is in the village and not there anywhere around. So, it’s not an ethical problem for him. He is not ashamed of trespassing somebody’s property. Instead, taking advantage of the moment, he starts admiring the woods without being watched. He is really seems delighted at this moment. I don’t know

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why he stopped, may be he doesn’t know himself. May be, he is comparing the beauty of nature to something, but on a symbolic level, the snow strongly reminds me that the poem is set in winter, and which is also widely represented as the image of death.

In the second stanza, I see that the speaker wonders about what his horse is “thinking” which shows his interests are also in the outside world too, like his horse. He also takes certain pleasure seeing the scene from what he imagines to be his horse’s perspective. I think his horse is practical in nature, he thinks, while the speaker sits there dreaming, watching the snow fill up the woods. He just stands there dreaming, and thinking about his horse's feelings is the one thing that brings him back to reality. Death comes again in the typical image of night, as we’re told this is the “darkest evening of the year.” Also, it can either be taken literally as the most lightless night, or it can be taken as the night of the darkest emotions. I think that it is a combination of the two, a dark moonless winter night in which the speaker experiences some form of depression or loneliness.

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