Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningBy Robert Frost

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.   

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.

IT ’S AN ARRANGEMENT OF A CERTAIN NUMBER OF LINES, USUALLY FOUR OR MORE, SOMETIMES HAVING A FIXED LENGTH, METER, OR RHYME SCHEME, FORMING A DIVISION OF A POEM.

Stanza:

Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter is the name given to a line of verse that

consists of five iambs (an iamb being one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed, such as "before"). It has been a fundamental building block of poetry in English, used in many poems by many poets from the English Renaissance to the present day. As with any meter, it is not necessary that every line should be entirely slavish in following the rhythm; in fact, being so could make the poem sound dull. Swapping, dropping or adding stressed and unstressed syllables will lend variety to a line without changing the underlying rhythm. Poems in iambic pentameter may or may not rhyme. Those that are written in continuous lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter are said to be in blank verse, while rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter may be called "heroic couplets", particularly when each couplet closes a thought or sentence on its second line.

Stopping by woods on a snowy evening

Four almost identically constructed stanzas.Within the four lines of each stanza, the first,

second, and fourth lines rhyme.. For example, in the third stanza, queer,

near, and year all rhyme, but lake rhymes with shake, mistake, and flake in the following stanza.

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.

Relating sight, meaning and thought

This stanza relates sight and thought that must be interpreted by the reader.

What the author sees can be made into an image.

What the reader interprets can vary from beauty, civilization vs. nature or foreboding.

Why foreboding?

My little horse must

think it queer 5

To stop without a

farmhouse near

Between the woods

and frozen lake

The darkest evening

of the year.

Why I see forebodingThere is a sense of

apprehension as if the person in poem fears discovery.

Often ‘The darkest evening of the year’ can either be interpreted as X-Mas or

The literal full-of-fear type of darkness.

In truth, I choose to see the foreboding instead of “loveliness”.

Civilization vs.

Nature

The woods are

lovely, dark, and

deep,

But I have promises

to keep,

And miles to go

before I sleep, 15

And miles to go

before I sleep.

The appreciation of nature vs. the urgency of responsibility.While I envision the motion of

the horse as a sign of danger or wariness,

The subject sees and allows to see the snow sweeping around.

The darkness and the “un-known” of nature is what I imagine as foreboding yet alluring.

But it is civilization that calls in line 15 and 16...

What do you see?

He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow. (line 3 and 4)

Between the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year. (line 7 and 8)

he only other sounds the sweepOf easy wind and downy flake. (11 and 12)

The imagery in this poem is subject to interpretation.The last two lines of every stanza

are subject to the perception of either the horse or the person,

The first two lines are always subject to the perception of us and,

There fore are about the horse or the person.

This poem has depth because it offers many perspectives that can be interpreted by each reader differently.