On the surface, this poem is simplicity itself. The speaker
is stopping by some woods on a snowy evening. He or she takes in the lovely
scene in near-silence, is tempted to stay longer, but acknowledges the pull of
obligations and the considerable distance yet to be traveled before he or she
can rest for the night.
In the first
stanza, the traveler appears worried that he is committing an offense by
looking upon woods owned by another man. Nevertheless, he steals a look, for
the other man "will not see me stopping here."
The second stanza says that the
location is remote (without nearby farmhouses), that the weather has been cold
enough to freeze a lake, and that the evening is the darkest of the year. However, the horse probably thinks it
odd that his master has stopped between the woods and lake on a dark evening,
the speaker says. This observation suggests that the darkness is external only,
for the speaker is using the word darkest to explain the horse's reaction.
Sounds are
important in the thrid stanza—namely, the sounds of the bells, the wind, and
the snowflakes. All of the sounds are gentle, contrasting with the cacophony of
everyday life in a town.
The traveler would
like to stay awhile and perhaps even enter the woods to absorb their ambience
and ponder the mystery of life and nature. However, he has obligations and
responsibilities. Therefore, he decides to move on. But the poem does not say
whether he in fact moves on. One presumes that he does. The last two
lines make a strong claim to be the most celebrated instance of repetition in
English poetry.
The poem consists of four (almost)
identically constructed stanzas. This is
a poem to be marveled at. Frost claimed
that he wrote it in a single nighttime sitting; it just came to him.
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