Robert Frost's most famous poem:
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
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.
These 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.
People thought (and think) the poem is about suicide. The owner of the woods, they say, is a reference to God. The horse is his conscience telling him that this idea (stopping "without a farmhouse near," or committing the act) is unwise (he "must think it queer"). His peering into these woods is like peering into the unknown, and his his reference to sleep is a reference to death. He himself said the poem was not about suicide, though apparently some people still believe it is.
Whether or not the poem is about suicide, a cool thing about it is that it is made up of nearly all one-syllable words, which helps give it its rhythm. Also, his first stanza is made up of no hard consonant sounds, like "k" or "g", which I read somewhere (forgive me for not having the reference) helped give the impression that there was a light wind blowing. The best aspect of the poem, though, is its rhyme structure: every third line in the first three stanzas rhymes with three lines in the next stanza, so that it looks like this:
know(A)
though(A)
here(B)
snow(A)
queer(B)
near(B)
lake(C)
year(B)
shake(C)
mistake(C)
sweep(D)
flake(C)
In the final stanza, though, all four lines rhyme, something which-- if Frost did intend to imply suicide-- may give the poem the same sense of finality as the main character in it. Like visual art, people can find their own meaning in a poem. I tend not to think Frost intended to mean his main character was considering suicide, but it's possible, I guess.
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
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.
These 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.
People thought (and think) the poem is about suicide. The owner of the woods, they say, is a reference to God. The horse is his conscience telling him that this idea (stopping "without a farmhouse near," or committing the act) is unwise (he "must think it queer"). His peering into these woods is like peering into the unknown, and his his reference to sleep is a reference to death. He himself said the poem was not about suicide, though apparently some people still believe it is.
Whether or not the poem is about suicide, a cool thing about it is that it is made up of nearly all one-syllable words, which helps give it its rhythm. Also, his first stanza is made up of no hard consonant sounds, like "k" or "g", which I read somewhere (forgive me for not having the reference) helped give the impression that there was a light wind blowing. The best aspect of the poem, though, is its rhyme structure: every third line in the first three stanzas rhymes with three lines in the next stanza, so that it looks like this:
know(A)
though(A)
here(B)
snow(A)
queer(B)
near(B)
lake(C)
year(B)
shake(C)
mistake(C)
sweep(D)
flake(C)
In the final stanza, though, all four lines rhyme, something which-- if Frost did intend to imply suicide-- may give the poem the same sense of finality as the main character in it. Like visual art, people can find their own meaning in a poem. I tend not to think Frost intended to mean his main character was considering suicide, but it's possible, I guess.
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