Stopping by the Woods for Some Espionage and Bombs on a Snowy Evening

Stopping by the Woods for Some Espionage and Bombs On a Snowy Evening

In the eighth grade I had to do an analysis on the poem Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening. Being the rambunctious kid that I was, I turned the entire poem around. A poem about pondering, longing and reflection turned into a poem about spies, espionage, bombs and death. Needless to say, that was pretty stupid. Now, several years of maturing have passed and I can now look at this wonderful poem from a more serious angle. Even though I butchered the poem in the eighth grade, it still remains one of my favorites and sparked my interest in Robert Frost. Let’s see how my view has changed on one of Frost’s masterpieces.

In order to find the whole meaning and to give Frost the justice his work deserves, I will take this one stanza at a time. The first stanza reads:

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.

At first glance, you have a man who is traveling and has taken time to stop for a moment to watch his friends woods fill with snow. His friend is in the village so he can not visit him, even though he would like to. We can see that this is a fellow who knows how to

stop and smell the roses. He is taking time to pause from his travels to take in the beauty and tranquility of the woods. This could also reveal that he is weary of travel and is just in need of some rest but with every new stanza, we are introduced to a new element involved in the picture Frost is painting for us.

Which brings us to our next stanza.

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.

Here we can see that the man is traveling on a horse. He is nowhere near a village or civilization of any kind. We also have a frozen lake added to the scene and find out that it is the darkest evening of the year. The horse is getting uneasy because it is not really accustomed to stopping randomly with out civilization near by. Maybe this shows us that the man really is not the type to stop and smell the roses. Maybe this guy is very direct and purposeful in everything he does, even his travel. That would explain why his horse is so uneasy, he has never really stopped like this before.

This next stanza brings a little more understanding of the atmosphere around the man and his horse.

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.

This stanza tells us that, other than the confused horse that is wondering what is going on, it is pretty much silent. I am pretty sure that if you can hear snow, then it is really quiet. Other than that, there is a soft wind sweeping through the forest. Frost is really painting us a beautiful picture as he unfolds the layers of this scene. He even gives us a description of the sounds this man is hearing, but there is still one more stanza left that will tell us even more and possibly give this poem a whole new feel then what we have assumed up to this point.

So far, to this point we have a traveler who has stopped in the woods to take in the beauty of a moon lit forest filling with snow. We