Stopping by woods on a snowy evening modified

1. Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
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Literature Native
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Literature Appreciation 417-212

2. Robert Frost

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3. Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco,
California. His father William Frost, a journalist and an ardent
Democrat, died when Frost was about eleven years old. His Scottish
mother, the former Isabelle Moody, resumed her career as a
schoolteacher to support her family. The family lived in Lawrence,
Massachusetts, with Frost's paternal grandfather, William Prescott
Frost, who gave his grandson a good schooling. In 1892 Frost
graduated from a high school and attended Dartmouth College for a
few months. Over the next ten years he held a number of jobs. Frost
worked among others in a textile mill and taught Latin at his mother's
school in Methuen, Massachusetts. In 1894 the New York
Independent published Frost's poem 'My Butterfly' and he had five
poems privately printed. Frost worked as a teacher and continued to
write and publish his poems in magazines. In 1895 he married a
former schoolmate, Elinor White; they had six children.
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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.
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 (by Robert Frost)

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1. Who is the speaker? What kind of person is
he?
•The speaker can be Robert Frost or the persona
“I” ,who is a lonely man.
2. To whom is he speaking?
•He is speaking to his audience.
3. What is the occasion?

-
4-5. What is the setting in time and place?
•One snowy evening in winter in the deep dark
woods.

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6. What is the central purpose of the
poem?
• The speaker wants to reflect his feeling
and experience he encountered during his
journey in the woods, that is, he has
realized peace, beauty in nature and
death.

7. 7. What is the central idea or theme of the poem?
Possible themes:
• In nature you can find beauty and peace at heart.
• You cannot choose what you really want to do if
you have “promises to keep”, which are your duty
and responsibility to fulfill.

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8. Discuss the tone of the poem. How is it achieved?
•The poem has a sad, melancholy or calm tone. The tone is
achieved though the use of continuants in the poem which
gives the slow paces and sad mood.
10. Paraphrase the poem
•One snowy evening, the speaker rides on a horse into the
deep woods where there is no passers-by. He stops in the
woods with a pensive mood and he knows the woods belongs
to a man whose house is in the village. He feels peaceful and
appreciates the beauty of the woods in winter. His horse must
think it’s strange to stop in that dark place between the woods
and frozen lake in the evening time. The speaker hears the
sound of the horse shaking his bell as a sign to ask his owner
whether there is something wrong. The other sounds the
speaker hears are those of wind and downy flakes. Although
the woods are pretty and pleasant to him, he has to keep
going because of his responsibility to fulfill his promises.

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11. Discuss the diction of the poem. Point out words
that are particularly well and explain why.
•In his poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,”
Robert Frost uses continuants in his word choice to
produce a calm, serene tones which makes the poem flow
smoothly from line to line. He uses phrases like “of easy
wind and downy flake” or “the woods are lovely, dark, and
deep” to create a peaceful, soothing tone. In addition, he
employs long but simple sentences to portray a simple
and serene stop in the woods. At the end of the poem he
uses repetition in the phrase “And miles to go before I
sleep, and miles to go before I sleep” to suggest the idea
of a long journey ahead of him. The structure of the
sentences and the choice of words work together
brilliantly to convey the calm and quiet tone of the poem.

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12. Discuss the imagery of the poem. What kinds
of imagery are used
?
•We can see the visual images of a pleasant wintry
scene and “lovely, dark, and deep” woods filled up
with snow throughout the poem.
• We can also hear the shaking of the harness bells
in the silence as an image of sound. Although we
can hear the “easy wind”, such a sound is gentle,
nearly as silent as the falling of the snow. The slight
alliteration in line 11, “
sound’s the sweep,” mimics
the sound of this wind.

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13. point out the figure of speech such as metaphor,
simile, personification, and explain their
appropriateness.

Personification
: In “My little horse must think it
queer” , “To ask if there is some mistake”, the horse is
personified to act as a human-being who can exchange
his thought with another person, and in “He gives his
harness bell a shake”, also suggests the personification
of a horse as a human-being.
Symbol
: The description of the woods in the last
stanza as ‘lovely, dark and deep’ symbolizing the happy
life after death.

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14. Point out and explain examples of paradox,
overstatement, irony, allegory, understatement
or allusion. What is their function?
•Examples of allusion such as in line 8, “the darkest
evening of the year” alludes to death referring to the
dark evening of the Judgment Day.
15. Point out the significant examples of sound
repetition and explain their function.
•Repetition is found in the poem in the final two
lines, “And miles to go before I sleep,” which gives
emphasis on the idea of how this person feels about
the responsibilities that lie ahead.

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18. Describe the form or pattern of the form.
•The poem consist of four stanzas, each with for lines which is
called a quatrain. Each line in the poem has eight syllables (or
four feet). The poem is in iambic tetrameter. The rhyme
scheme of this poem is regular with the pattern of a a b a
except the last one with a a a a
• Alliteration
Stanza 1= “H” sound - whose,
his, house, he, here, his “
W” sound-
woods, will, watch woods “
S” sound –
see, stopping, snowStanza 2= “M” sound –
my, must
“
L” sound –
little, lake
“
H” sound –
horse, farm
house
“
F” sound
-farmhouse,
frozen
Stanza 3= “H” sound –
he, his, harness
“
S” sound- a
sk, some, mistake, sound’s, sweepStanza 4 =“D” sound-
dark, deep

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19. Criticize and evaluate the poem.
•The poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy
Evening” is a meaningful poem. It conveys an
important idea of keeping up one’s duties and
responsibilities when alive. In stanza 3 the poet
personifies the horse as a human-being which
can communicate with its owner. The first line of
the last stanza, the ‘lovely, dark and deep woods’
is a symbol of the happy life after death.
Moreover, the continuant sounds of the words
used contribute to the pensive, unhurried mood of
the poem which makes us feel the tranquility of
the place.

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Reference:
http://www.answers.com/topic/stopping-by-woods-on-a-
snowy-evening-poem-3
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/A_f/frost/woods.htm
http://www.bookstove.com/Poetry/Stopping-by-Woods-on-a-
Snowy-Evening-An-Analysis.102251

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