Essay Sample on Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Symbols, Imagery, and Analysis

Introduction

Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" incorporates different literary and poetic devices that play a significant role in its analysis. The poem employs symbols and imagery to express the feelings of the speaker about the woods and how attractive and inviting they are.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The woods are the main attraction, and they provide solace and comfort to the traveler, although his horse does not seem happy at all with the thoughts that the traveler has. Robert uses the woods as a symbol for the civilization that shows the reader how the woods are at the edge drawing him away from the civilization "The woods are lovely, dark and deep" (Line 13). The horse is a symbol of the reproach that societies show against civilization, and the readers notice an aspect of personification in the poem as the horse is given human traits by shaking its harness bells as a way to show its defiance for them stopping. "He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake" (9-10). From this line, the reader understands that Robert Frost expresses the horse to have sense like a human being. The horse seems to understand what the owner is thinking and, in a way, inquires whether they have to stop in that setting "My little horse must think it queer / To stop without a farmhouse near" (5-6).

Robert Frost uses imagery to make his readers feel what he is expressing in the poem by using their senses. The images focus on different remarkable sights such as woods, lakes, villages, and houses that are a form of comfort to the traveler. "His house is in the village though / Between the woods and frozen lake" (1-9). The woods in the poem are an impressive spectacle which the author cannot get enough of. He stops and stares at them despite the cold evening and the snow that was threatening to cover the beautiful sight in front of him. "He will not see me stopping here / To watch his woods fill up with snow" (3-4). The woods are mysterious, too, as the speaker admits that he is not alone. Line (4) is evidence of the woods being an image as the author speaks of them filling up with snow while he watches them.

Another image used in this poem is the frozen lake, the village, and the farmhouse that he uses to express to the readers the natural world that surrounds him. They pose a threat to the promise he has kept as they lure him into staying longer because the owner of the woods is away in the village. "His house is in the village though / But I have promises to keep" (2-14). The "easy wind and downy flake" (12) is an image of the powerful nature that surrounds the author, and it almost causes him to forget about his quest because he feels more compelled to stay and watch as snow covers all the woods in the forest.

The speaker in the poem, however, has to go on with his journey despite all the temptations he faces to stay in the woods. He has got things to do and a promise to keep, so he is not yet ready to rest. "But I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep" (14-15).

Work Cited

Frost, Robert. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert..." Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 1995, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening.