Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods

Whether people would like to admit it or not, everyone does things that do not always make sense. For instance, many people talk to inanimate objects when they do not work the way they are supposed to work. Even though people know that no decipherable response will come from them, pets and other animals are also often the recipients of other such one-sided conversations. In addition to simply talking to animals, many people give animals human characteristics such as emotions and thoughts, perhaps to help them feel less alone in the world. In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the speaker gives his horse thoughts and emotions, like any ordinary person would in his position, perhaps to show that he is feeling lonely and left out of the world. The poet of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost, uses literary devices such as the personification of a horse to draw attention to common yet significant ideas. One of the literary devices that Frost uses to get his impressions across to his reader is rhyme scheme; specifically, he employs end rhyme. The rhyme scheme in this poem is
AABA
BBCB
CCDC
DDDD.

In the first three stanzas, this rhyme scheme draws attention to the third line. The reason Frost is trying to emphasize these lines is that each line contains a sensory detail about his surroundings. In line 3, the speaker comments that “[the owner of the woods] will not see me stopping here.” In line 7, the speaker describes his surroundings: “between the woods and frozen lake.” “The only other sound’s the sweep” describes what the speaker is hearing (l. 11). The use of these sensory details show that the speaker is very deep in nature and away from any other human life altogether. He mentions that he and his horse have stopped “without a farmhouse near” and that “the only other sound’s the sweep/Of easy wind and downy flake” to show how far from everywhere and everyone else he is. In the last stanza, however, the rhyme scheme differs from the others. Due to this differentiation in rhyme schemes, the fourth stanza has more of a continuing, less interrupted flow to it:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And many miles before I sleep,
And many miles before I sleep

(ll. 13-16). The unending quality of these lines, which is caused by the different rhyme scheme, create an almost weary tone, as if the speaker is wanting to rest, yet cannot because he still has promises to fulfill. Frost also uses a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables to create this slow, weary tone. In every line of the poem, all eight syllables follow an unstressed/stressed pattern. In lines 15 and 16, “And many miles before I sleep,” this meter shows that the narrator is stressing the distance he must travel before he can rest. Another language device used in this poem is repetition. In line 4, “To watch his woods fill up with snow,” Frost uses the alliteration of the “w”s to make this line sound calming, peaceful, and inviting. An additional example of repetition is the use of the word “woods,” which is written a total of five times throughout the poem: in the title and in lines 1, 4, 7, and 14. This stresses how important the woods are; the speaker almost seems to be preoccupied with them. The poet also uses the repetition of the temperature to emphasize the importance of how cold it is outside. Frost mentions the temperature in the title and in lines 4, 7, and 12: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “To watch his woods fill up with snow,” “Between the woods and frozen lake,” and “Of easy wind and downy flake” (italics mine). In addition to mentioning the temperature, the speaker also makes a comment on how dark it is where he is pausing by using the word “dark” twice: “The darkest evening of the year,” and “The woods are lovely, dark and deep” (ll.8 and 13). In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost uses multiple literary devices to tell the reader what the speaker of the poem is thinking, feeling, and experiencing. The imagery and descriptions give a rich background for the reader to visualize. In this way, the poet allows the reader of the poem to relate the speaker’s feelings more to his or her own life and experiences.