Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

1. Stopping By Woods On Snowy Evening By Frost Essay, Research Paper
In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," we have a man who stops in the woods to watch the snow fall. The speaker finds these woods to escape from the everyday stresses of life. My own interpretation is that the man finds himself at a critical crossroad in his life and he flees to these woods to reflect on his life. The woods that Frost illustrates are a representation of heaven. Although the man is turning to God for guidance, he is neither in nor near a church. Even still, he believes his location is irrelevant to God, who ultimately listens no matter what. In the second stanza, the horse is only a figment of his imagination. This "horse" is, in actuality, the speaker’s own consciousness, a moment that we create something to relive the stress of our deepest emotions. It acts as an internal censor to keep us close to sanity, the value of life, and maybe even God trying to save his life. When he comes "Between the woods and frozen lake," he finds that he is at a crossroad in life. The speaker ponders what direction to take, whether to live as the moral man that he is, or to take the easy way out by taking his own life.
Frost portrays "The darkest evening of the year," as the speaker comes to the end of his road. In the third stanza, while the speaker is giving
"His harness bells a shake," he is really contemplating and asking himself if he should go through with the suicide. The restful imagery of
"lovely, dark and, deep" provides a simple, peaceful, and calm feeling that attracts the speaker to suicide. He realizes that he had "promises to keep," but we can only hope that he decided to fulfill his obligations to
God, his family, his friends, and most importantly? to himself. However, we will never know because as the poem comes to a close, there is no ending.
Instead, the refrains only present a fade out and the poem is left open-ended.
It is for us as readers to wonder if the speaker will create the only peacefulness that he knows or will he choose to remain the man that already exists. 2. Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening Essay, Research Paper
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
There are many things to look at when one tries to analyze a poem. Once he/she knows what the story is about, they could look at the speaker’s point of view, along with many other things. For Example: setting, language, figures of speech, symbols, atmosphere and mood, characterization, theme and conflicts are just some of the other methods that could be used. Finally, the analyzer should say what the whole poem’s underlying meaning is.
Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is about a person the speaker, who stops near the woods when it is snowing out to take a break and look around. He notices how beautiful it is to look at the snow falling in such a peaceful way out of the dark sky.
The first stanza can be interpreted in different ways. He thinks he knows the person’s woods that he is stopping in, even though he is not near the village where the house is. “He will not see me stopping here, to watch his woods fill up with snow.” The speaker might be a little concerned about who is watching him, because he does not want to have people talk about him in anything other then a masculine way. If he is seen watching the snowfall, then he might be considered by some to be a little less of a man. The speaker just wants to sit and watch the snow fill up someone’s woods.
The reader could interpret the second stanza as a continuation of guilt that the speaker feels about enjoying the natural beauty of snow. “My little horse must think it queer,” he even thinks that his horse thinks he has something wrong with him. His horse must wonder why they are stopping on “the darkest evening of the year” when it is cold and snowing outside. After all, they did stop in the middle of the woods, with nothing else around them to look at the snow.
The speaker allows the reader to see more of his “weird” tendencies with the third stanza. The horse wonders if there is something wrong by shaking his harness asking, “if there is some mistake?” Then the speaker talks more about his non-masculine ways when he says, “The only other sound’s the sweep, of easy wind and downy flake.” He is giving himself away and he might not even know it, talking about “easy wind and downy flake.” Typical women would say those words.
Another word that women would typically say is “lovely.” “The woods are lovely,” he is describing something as lovely. That is not something a man would do. Then he makes up an excuse for him having to leave and not be able to enjoy the view. “But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” He might finally be realizing that he is starting to go a little soft, so he does not want to enjoy the view anymore. Just in case someone happens to see him in, he does not want anyone to know that he enjoys nature.
In this poem, the speaker is implying that he is scared of the public’s perception of him. He does not want to be known as anything other than a man. He hopes that nobody saw him stopping that night, because then it could arouse suspicion of what he truly is. That is why he does not stay and watch the snow longer.

3. Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening Essay, Research Paper
In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, the immense beauty and power of nature is used to enhance the sense of procrastination that is felt towards death; leading to the complete abolishment of time. The indescribable beauty of nature has the ability to control the responsive state of an individual, whereby a loss in the sense of reality heightens the complete awe and wonder of the sheer beauty. The driving force behind all that is unaccomplished in this world is procrastination; which can overtake even the strongest of wills and desires. Although time is regarded as a vital factor in life, it can often be diminished by a single encompassing power. Even the simplest things are able to persuade and convince people to act out against the norm.
The enchanting wonder of nature has the ability to control the thoughts and feelings of a person; causing them to lose touch with all that is real to that person. The daily, conscious decisions to continue life are almost diminished by the “lovely, dark, and deep” woods. The stunning woods represent the peace that is longed for by this man. However, man and nature are two separate things, and their worlds cannot be intertwined. The choice between the two is a difficult one, but the everlasting peace that nature presents is often turned to. This imagery of nature is used to parallel death, whereby the solemnity and peace that depicts nature, in turn, depicts death.
The power of procrastination is strong enough to destroy even the strongest of wills. The man is pondering whether or not he should succumb to the “sleep” he desires, which symbolizes ending his life. He is at a major crossroad in his life, where he is undecided on choosing the peace he longs for, or continuing on with his journey. Procrastination is often looked at as a negative attribute for prolonging things more than they should be, but in this case, it ends up convincing a man to carry on with his life. Procrastination was able to persuade the man to pay more attention to the journey he is embarking on, rather than focus so much on the final destination (death), which will happen when it is meant to happen.
Time is often regarded as the essence of life, controlling when and how things are accomplished. However, a single power that is strong enough to lessen the awareness of time is a unique and powerful thing. In this case, the force of nature attempts to convince the man to end the importance of time in his life, and disregard the “promises” he must keep. Eliminating time from one’s life can provide a large relief and assurance of peace, but, in turn, the loss of time represents the complete loss of reality. The epiphonic experience that the man encounters, enables him to grasp on to time and make it a priority in his life.
The control that nature possesses is able to highlight the positive side of death to this man, forcing him to stop his journey. However, the immense power of procrastination is able to override such an idea, making it seem less tempting and more troublesome. Although nature and life seem to go hand in hand, both contradict each other in the logic of this man. The undefaced beauty that the woods present entices the man to end his journey and move on to his final destination of death, whereas the purpose of life is to continue on and pay close attention to the journey, while not focusing as much on reaching the conclusion.