I thought it'd be fun to discuss one of my very favorite poems "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" especially because it mentions the 'darkest evening of the year' and a few days ago was the Winter Solstice in the western hemisphere. So let's take a look! To participate in this Poetry Reader's Discussion, read the poem and then you can A) Answer some or all of the discussion questions, or B) Share your own thoughts / questions, or C) Comment on what others have said, or all three! There are no "right" or "wrong" answers in these types of discussions, it's all chill, so please feel free to jump right in and share your thoughts.
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost
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.
Source: Poetry Foundation
My Thoughts...
Spoiler
Outside of nursery rhymes, this was the very first poem I ever memorized so always holds a special spot in my memory! My mom had an illustrated story book that she used to read of this poem over and over and over again - and as a kid I imagined the poem was probably about a person who was considering Santa Clause near Christmas Time. I thought the horse was probably a reindeer only posing to be a horse, and the man in the village was certainly St. Nick. I imagined the man rushing off to keep his promises to his family that he'd be home for Christmas.
Later as I got older I thought maybe the poem was more-so about the beauty and respite of nature and that the narrator was weighing their responsibilities and the desire to be removed. (Sort of a Walden, Thoreau interpretation!)
When I was in middle school though, we analyzed this poem in a literature class, and the teacher said for us to consider "sleep" in the final couplet to be "death". This definitely made me realize this poem could be a great deal darker or weightier than the light storybook I had remembered. I think there are many valid interpretations of this poem and that one of its strengths is that it has multiple levels of interpretation - there is a literal level (a man walking through woods and admiring the snow-fall) and there is a metaphorical level (the woods being a metaphor for death, depression, sickness, dreams etc). This makes the poem really interesting and able to speak to people at multiple experiences too.
While the poem may be a depressing one for some if they consider the woods / sleep to be death, I think the poem is still a rather positive and encouraging one and find the idea of having promises to keep to be a motivating sort of mantra. The idea that the darkness we experience in the world can also be lovely, dark, and deep is also a complex thought too that I think is worth exploring more.
In addition to being intrigued by the message and loving the imagery, this poem also has really wonderful sound devices. It is written in iambic tetrameter that with the rhyme scheme makes it quite fun to read aloud. The sound devices of the alliteration and consonance throughout also I think mimic an almost whispering / hush of the wind sound in parts which is neat too.
Questions you could Consider...
1) What do you think this poem is about / what is your interpretation?
2) How does the form (ie. the line & stanza breaks, the rhyming, and sound devices) impact your reading or contribute to the poem?
3) What's the impact of the final line repeating itself?
4) A history note about this poem - there's a story that an early editor added a comma to the line "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep" and Frost demanded it be removed again to be "The woods are lovely, dark and deep", then after his death an editor put it back in. How does that small comma change the meaning of the poem - do you like it better with or without?
5) Any other thoughts / questions / comments / highlights you would like to share?
Feel free to answer any or all of the discussion questions, or just share some of your own initial thoughts! These are just to get you thinking. There's another Frost Poem discussion here if you need more poetry discussin.
Tagging people who might be interested...
@Liminality, @Seirre, @Spatula @ScatteredScones @Quillfeather @LizzyTyler @Plume @WeepingWisteria @SilverNight @Spearmint @Moonglade @Lovestrike @angxlari
And if you're interested in checking in on more poetry discussions, be sure to subscribe to the Poetry Readers Club
I've read this several times by now, but the questions give new insights.