Frost’s

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy

Evening”: An Analysis
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

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 Link to poem
The darkest evening of the year.
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.
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 plain sense of the poem
Stanza 1-

To Whom these woods belong?

I think they belong to a man in the village,
But he won’t see me stop here to watch
The snow fall on the trees of his woods.
Stanza 2-

My horse that I ride must be thinking

It is strange to stop at this time of the night.
I stopped in-between the woods and the frozen lake,
On the night with no moon.
Stanza 3-

The horse shakes the bells,

As if he were to ask if I had made a mistake.
There is no other sound in the woods
Except the whistle of the wind.
Stanza 4-

The woods are beautiful and dark,

But I have many commitments to keep,
And I have to travel a long time,
A long way before I have time to rest.
The literal meaning and life
Images Your life?

Horse bells
Which of these
Snow images remind
you of something
Woods
in your own life?
Gone miles before you
could sleep

Relationship to Life
THE FIGURATIVE AND
SYMBOLIC MEANING

Literal Figurative

Woods Nature or wildness or

irrationality or darkness.

Sleep Death

Village Civilization or responsibility

Horse Domesticated part of society;

-criticizes speaker for civilization.
stopping -highlights society’s
disapproval
Rest too long while snow falls To lose one’s way or to die
Multiple Interpretations of this Poem
1) A description of a man appreciating nature.

2) The poem is about death.

3) This poem addresses suicide.

4) Nature-lovers see it as a piece that trumpets

nature and that scorns civilization (take that,
civilization!).

You probably have your own idea of what this

poem means. How does it sound to you?
Images Your life?

Stopping to appreciate
nature Which of these
images remind
Death
you of something
in your own life?
Suicide

Nature vs. Civilization

Relationship to Life
 Should I Care?
Have you ever wanted to escape from the world for a little while?
Perhaps to go watch some woods fill up with snow? Leave
Facebook to accumulate friend requests and wall posts for you,
let the e-mails pile up, record a mischievous away message on
your cell phone, stuff the homework, the papers, and the tests
under the bed? Well, then this is a poem for you.

Sometimes we crave a little vacation from responsibility.

Sometimes we get hungry for alone time like the speaker does in
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." In a world in which
we are constantly stimulated by the Internet, TV, phones, and ads,
and in a world in which we are busy little bees, do we get to
spend much time alone anymore? Do we have time to stop and
smell the roses?
The form of the poem:

•The poem is a lyric; it narrates personal feelings

and it is musical. The music in the poem is
achieved by the meter
(the rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstresse
d syllables in verse)

•The rhyme is aaba bbcb ccdc dddd.

A simile: a comparison with the use of “as” or
“like”
Oh! My love is like a red red rose
A metaphor: a comparison without the use of
“as” or “like”
Oh! My love is a red red rose
A symbol: an implicit reference that allows
for different interpretations
Oh! My red rose