Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Episode 21
This week, take a walk into the forest with Professor Pipes as she discusses Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Bundle up and hop on your judgy horse!
Transcript
Introduction:
Hey, everyone! I’m Professor Pipes, and I just want to say thanks for stopping by Piper’s Paraphrases! Oh, you don’t get it? Well, today I’ll be discussing Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Now you get it? Great! Then let’s get started!
Summary:
In this brief poem, the narrator has stopped by some woods on a snowy evening. Surprise surprise! They mention that the owner of the woods lives in the village, so he won’t be bothered by the narrator creeping on his woods, watching the snow fall. The narrator says their horse might think they’re weird for stopping on the darkest night of the year, far away from civilization. What a judgy horse! He even shakes his bells, like he’s trying to get the narrator to leave! But they don’t, yet, listening instead to the wind blowing the snow. The narrator seems to look longingly at the deep, dark woods, but reminds themself that they have promises to keep and miles more to travel. And that’s it! That’s the whole poem!
Analysis:
As you can tell, this is a very short poem, only 16 lines long, so we’ll be out of here in a flash! Buuuuut… maybe that’s the problem. It seems as if the entire point of this poem is to not be so quick to rush onward, but instead to take a moment…
Ok, moment over.
There isn’t total consensus over the meaning of this little poem, with two main camps: one a whole lot darker than the other. Soooo which should I start with? You know what, let’s go dark, guys!
First of all, the poem is broken up into four quatrains, or sets of four lines, which have a very consistent rhyme scheme, of AABA BBCB CCDC, but then it switches in the last stanza, with all four lines rhyming: DDDD. Not only that, but the last two lines are repeats: “And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.” The repetition and change in rhyme scheme really make these lines stand out, and some say, for good reason. One interpretation of this poem, is that the journey the speaker is on, is life, and the deep, dark woods that are so tempting to the narrator, represent death. The great beyond. The unknown. The darkness into which they will step once they die. And they want to stay there, in those woods, representing a desire for death! However, they remember that they have promises to keep, obligations left in their life, and it will be miles and miles before they are able to sleep. And those metaphorical miles between the speaker and the eternal sleep of death seem endless and repetitive. Soooo… sad poem. Sorry ‘bout that, everybody.
The other main interpretation is a little less depressing, and certainly makes sense for a man who penned such other poems as “Birches” and “The Road Less Traveled.” It’s a poem about nature. Well, nature vs society, to be more specific. Robert Frost tends to use nature as a way to comment or reflect on humanity, and this poem may be no different. The speaker seems torn between their obligations in society and the calm beauty of nature. Even the horse, once a wild animal, has been turned into nothing more than a tool of society, seemingly judgemental of the narrator’s restful enjoyment of the scenery, reminding them to return to the “real world” and urging them onward. The narrator knows that they must return, and trudge back to their town, and that journey back seems endless, with miles and miles to go before they are able to rest. They would rather stay in the calm serenity of nature, enjoying the quiet sound of the snow and the wind, instead of heading back into society, making that journey back seem even more endless, thus befitting the repetition of those final two lines.
Like all art, the intended purpose is only part of the story. Much of a piece’s value comes from how you, the reader, receive and interpret it. But, whichever interpretation you go with, it seems like this poem is encouraging us to stop and take a moment to reflect. A moment to think about our lives, or contemplate a serious, life-altering choice, or just enjoy the beauty of the natural world. So, it may be cliche, but maybe we should stop and smell a rose, or listen to a bird sing, or watch some falling snow. Or abandon civilization to go live under a mountain with Ron Swanson.
Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be good people!
Food for Thought:
1. What is the mood of this poem? How does it change as the story progresses?
2. What is the benefit of personifying the speaker’s horse? How does it add to the piece?
3. What is the benefit of having a first person narrative, rather than describing the speaker’s actions from a third person perspective?
4. Of the two main interpretations of this poem offered in the video, which do you tend to agree with? Why? Is there another interpretation you see?
