Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

1. Themes

   • Loneliness
     • We discover that the narrative persona is far away from any human contact and enjoys it this way - he is happy that no one is there.
       • Pathetic fallacy is used to develop the theme of loneliness - adjectives "frozen" and "dark" both create a melancholic tone.
         • The idea of being alone links to Frost's depression - he enjoyed his company and avoided human contact.
   • Nature
     • Frost uses the woods to develop the theme of nature as like the poem, they hide depth which creates mystery.
   • Choices
     • The narrative persona makes choices which his horse does not agree with - whether he stays in the woods fill up with snow or to return to to the security and warmth of the village.
       • The personal pronoun "I" suggests that the poem is about the poet - the horse could be an extended metaphor for Frost as it is constantly personified.

2. Context

   • Frost wrote the poem in June 1922 at his home in Vermont.
   • He wrote the new poem "about the snowy evening" and "the little horse" as if he had a hallucination.
   • A passage from the poem was read when John F. Kennedy's casket was brought to the White House as Frost was one of Kennedy's favourite poets.

3. Summary

   • The poem describes the thoughts of a lone rider who pauses at night during his travel to watch snow falling in the woods.
     • It ends with the narrative persona reminding themselves that they have far to go until they are able to sleep despite the beautiful sight before them.

4. Structure

   • The poem is written in iambic tetrameter (mono-syllabic words which build a fast pace) in the Rubaiyat (a collection of quatrains) stanza.
   • The overall rhyming scheme of the poem is AABA-BBCB-CCDC-DDDD.

5. Language

   • Repetition of the noun "woods".
     • The wood the narrative persona is in acts as a boundary between different areas (the wood and village) or lifestyles.
   • Anaphora of the verb "sleep".
     • It has connotations of not only peace and rest, but also dormancy and death. The anaphora suggests that the narrative persona has travelled a long way both physically (reinforced by the noun "miles") and mentally (implied by Frost's depression).