Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost
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

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

He gives his harness bell’s a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake

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.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is a poem written in 1922 by Robert Frost and
published in 1923 in his New Hampshire volume. The poem has four quatrains and written in
iambic tetrameter. Each verse (except the last) follows an A-A-B-A rhyming scheme which is a
chain rhyme, so the overall rhyme scheme is AABA-BBCB-CCDC-DDDD.
There are various interpretations to understand the real meaning of this poem. We can see
the theme of this poem just from surface or we can analyze it deeper to unveil the meaning
behind its symbolism. If we conclude this analysis, we can say that Frost tried to connect the
unnoticed beauty of nature and the internal conflict in human life. If we want to understand
this poem from light analysis, we can say that this is about a wanderer who takes a break from
his journey to see his surrounding that he never notices before. On the other hand, if we take
the higher analysis, we can also say that this is about a wanderer who almost seduced by the
mysterious beauty of nature that makes him forgot his real destination. But actually, if we look
deeper, this poem is about the temptation of death, someone who has the great desire of
merge with mother nature, to escape from the ugly reality of the world and he do not has any
wish to come back home.