Analysis of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Very often with poetry, the title of the poem is meant to be a grand, all-encompassing,
thought-provoking idea that inspires with its grandiose power. In other instances, the
title is nothing more than exactly what the poem is about. Enter "Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening", which is about — seriously, not a trick statement — stopping
by woods on a snowy evening. What follows here is my own analysis of the poem,
drawing on the essay's author's opinions and preferences based on Frost’s words.

In the first stanza, the poem starts off with a very literal description of the events
surrounding the narrator. Technically, he is trespassing on another person’s property
— a forest on land that does not belong to him — but knowing that the man won’t be
around for a while, he can’t stop himself from taking a few moments to watch the
peaceful descent of winter through this forest. Robert Frost captures the essence of
this peacefulness well. Readers may notice how every rhyming word ends with the
euphonic “oh” sound, how every word in the stanza is either monosyllabic or
disyllabic, making for a simple flow, an easy read, and a simple sense of peace
throughout.

The second stanza draws attention to the human sense of peacefulness. It’s interesting
for Frost to note that the horse accompanying him on his journey isn’t able to fathom
why this human being has simply stopped to stare at a bunch of trees. From “the
darkest evening of the year,” it makes sense to think that the setting for this poem is
the night of the winter solstice, but this can also be interpreted to refer to the more
difficult times in a person’s life. “The darkest evening of the year” could be literal, or
it could mean that the speaker is experiencing a really, really hard day. If so, it’s all
the more reason to stop and take a rest from the stress and difficulties demanded by
life, while your horse looks on supposedly without a care in the world.

This stanza also solidifies the rhyming structure of the poem; the poem is written in
an "aaba" style, with the first line of each stanza rhyming with the third line of the
previous one — in this case, “here” and “queer”. This is a simple structure that flows
very nicely and makes the reading experience easier and more pleasant.

In the third stanza, as the now-personified horse continues to exist in a state of

confusion, and as the narrator continues to appreciate the silence, the reader of the

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poem will continue to feel the sense of simple peace that Robert Frost is trying to
convey. There is a noticeable consonance here with the “s” and "z" sounds; “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”. It’s very easy to read, and flows extremely
well. The continuation of the simple "aaba" structure of the poem further enhances the
need Frost has for his reader to understand the natural flow that accompanies a walk
in the woods on a snowy evening.

Unfortunately, peace doesn’t last forever. Whatever long, dark, difficult day prompted
this stop in the woods hasn’t gone away while it was being stared at. Distractions are
wonderful things, and anything that can keep your mind off your troubles is a
welcome addition to any day, but the real world still exists. In the final stanza, “sleep”
is the metaphor used for true rest; the rest of a fulfilled promise, of a fulfilled day, or
even a fulfilled life.

In fact, this poem could be looked at as a simple commentary on life, a statement

saying that if you stand around and watch your life for too long, it’ll get away from
you. At the end of the story, the narrator returns to his journey, looking forward to the
conclusion of the darkest evening of the year, and the sleep he can earn at the end of
his journey. It also has a deeper meaning: to say one has “miles to go” before they
“sleep” can be looked at as a more poetic way to say there’s a long way to go before
the grave.

The final stanza is the only one that consists of four rhyming lines, due to the
repetition of “and miles to go before I sleep,” possibly because there is no next verse
to continue the verse-to-verse rhyming pattern. I also like to imagine the narrator
saying this line out loud and repeating it to himself to reinforce the idea. I know I’ve
done that myself, stopped in the middle of a long walk, and reinforced to myself the
fact that I had to keep walking (ironically also during the winter, though it was a river
I’d stopped to admire).

*Adapted from an essay on www.freepoemanalysis.com.