CHAPTER 17 Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Slide 1

• CHAPTER 17
• Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Slide 2

• Watch Videos
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to0UbOOUEnI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sWcq2-ZA5o

WORD MEANINGS

• •VILLAGE- smaller than a town, situated in a rural area.
• •QUEER- Strange
• •FROZEN- Chilled or Iced
• •FARMHOUSE- a house attached to a farm
• •HARNESS- a set of straps and fittings by which a horse to tie with cart
• •SWEEP- clean
• •MILES- a very long way

Important Notes

• In each stanza the first, second and fourth lines rhyme but the third line does not.
• The third line rather determines the rhyme of the next stanza.
• first stanza ‘know’, ‘though’ and ‘snow’ rhyme.
• ‘here’ rhymes with ‘queer’, ‘near’ and ‘year’ in the second stanza.
• Rhyme scheme is AABA-BBCB-CCDC-DDDD and it is written in Iambic tetrameter, having four stressed syllables in each line.

Slide 5

• Stanza 1
• “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.”
• The narrator (may be the poet himself) of the poem stops by the Woods on his way one evening.
• The narrator knows the owner of the woods lives in village.
• He feels relaxed that the owner will not see him stopping here.
• Therefore he can continue watching the natural beauty of his snow-covered woods.

Slide 6

• Stanza 2
• “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.”
• The narrator of the poem says that his dear horse, might be feeling strange to stop here between the woods and the frozen lake in a dark evening.
• Because he usually stops near a farmhouse.
• In this stanza the narrator suggest that the weather is cold enough to freeze a lake.

Slide 7

• Stanza 3
• “He gives his harness bells a shake
• To ask if there is some mistake.
• The only other sounds the sweep
• Of easy wind and downy flake.”
• The horse shakes its head ringing the bell attached to its harness.
• The horse was asking his master that did we stop here my mistake as it is unusual for him to stop by the woods in the darkness.
• Sound imageries- Imagination of sound (unreal)
• There is only three sounds – the sounds of the harness bell, light wind and the snowflakes.

Slide 8

• Stanza 4
• “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 describes the woods using three adjectives – lovely, dark and deep.
• It indicates that he is enjoying the scene and wants to stay there for longer.
• But he has other responsibilities in life. He has to go a long way before he sleeps. So he cannot get the enjoyment for long.
• The poet repeats the last line to attract the attention of the readers.
• Here “sleep” refers to death.