Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Poem Analysis

This paper is going to analyze the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.

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The theme that is illustrated clearly and stands out in this poem is that of admiration. It is human nature to have desires, admire and be fascinated by someone or something. However, the persona of the poem is more than fascinated by this beautiful scenery of the woods to some extent it would pass for an obsession.

This is evident by the adjectives he uses to describe the woods that shows his deep love for the same. In the second last line of the poem, the persona describes the woods as lovely, dark and deep. The persona goes ahead and says in the same line that he has promises to keep and miles to go before sleeping and for that reason he cannot stay any longer at the woods despite his desire to. This means that had he not any other commitments to fulfil, he would have stayed at the woods some more.

Secondly, the persona says that the current weather is snowy hence, cold. Normally, on a cold evening the first thing that should have come to the personas mind is going home, keeping warm and maybe a cup of tea or coffee. Yet, he stops in the woods just to admire. This illustrates ultimate desire and admiration of the woods.

The title of the poem is significant to the content and meaning of the same. The title Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is catchy and gives us a hint of what to expect in the poems content. The first thing it tells the reader is that the persona stops by the woods hence, raises the interest level to know what about the woods makes him stop and why would he do it on a snowy evening instead of going home.

The poem goes ahead in its content to tell us about the beauty of the woods and how it caught the eye of the persona therefore, answering the question posed by the title efficiently. The title also tells us about the current weather condition of the woods which is enhanced in the content of the poem. For the above two reasons, it is safe to say that the title is significant to the poems content and meaning.

The poem has a couple of literary stylistic devices used including: repetition, rhythm, imagery and rhyme. There are two types of rhyme used in this poem namely: internal rhyme and end rhyme. Internal rhyme is one that occurs within the same line of poetry. A good example is in the fourth and the sixth lines of the poem.

My little horse must think it queer, to stop without a farmhouse near.

He gives his harness bells a shake, to ask if there is some mistake.

In the fourth line, the words queer and near are rhyming words whereas in the sixth line the rhyming words are shake and mistake and both are used in the same line. This is internal rhyme in play. End rhyme occurs where the rhyming words come at the end of two or more sentences. In this poem, this is the most dominant stylistic device employed. It is in almost line of the poem. A good example is in the fourth and fifth lines of the poem.

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.

The rhyming words are near and year and they both happen to occur at the end of the fourth and fifth sentences respectively.

Repetition is also employed in the poem as a stylistic device. The last line of the poem, And miles to go before I sleep, is repeated twice. Repetition in this case is used to stress the importance and distance of the journey that the persona has to embark on instead of staring at the woods admiringly. The poet uses imagery to create vivid pictures in the mind of the reader. In the second last line where he describes the woods as lovely, dark and deep gives the reader pretty clear picture of how the woods look like and why the persona admires them greatly. Rhythm is enhances in this poem by the use of internal and end rhyme respectively. Rhyming words give a sense of musicality to the poem.

The identity of the poems narrator is not crystal. First of all, one cannot tell the gender of the persona but from the poem one can deduce that the narrator is a traveler who frequents that route. This is because he knows the owner of the woods and at the same time he knows where the owner resides. This is not something one can just know without being a frequent visitor of that place. The author owns a horse and is self-cautious as he does not wish to be seen by the owner of the woods admiring while at the same time thinks it is queer to stare.