Comparision of 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' and 'The Chalk Pit'

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The poems 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' by Robert Frost and 'The Chalk Pit' by Edward Thomas both convey a sense of place in their meaning. 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' is about how the narrator stops outside the snow-filled woods to admire the scenery along with his horse. The narrator does not stay for long as he has 'promises to keep'. 'The Chalk Pit' involves the conversation of two people about a chalk pit nearby. Speaker A adds a lot of imagination to the conversation while Speaker B is more plainspoken and mundane. The theme of the two poems is of nature and place. In 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' the narrator is captivated by the scenery of the woods in Winter time. The conveys an image of beauty to the reader. In 'The Chalk Pit' the speakers discuss the chalk pit. Speaker A finds the place to be filled with wonders where as speaker B finds the place to be an ordinary chalk pit that is overgrown with weeds. 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' is made up of four quatrains and is in the form iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme is AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD. This is a clever rhyme scheme and the repetition of the penultimate line illustrates that the poem is ending and the narrator is leaving the snowy landscape that he was drawn to on his travels. Where as, 'The Chalk Pit' is made up of one stanza and is in the form iambic pentameter. There is no noticeable rhyme scheme. Having only one stanza keeps the conversation between the two speakers flowing which conveys a more natural image of the place to the reader. The tone of 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' is rather light and smooth in the first three stanzas and the rhyme scheme makes it flow pleasantly. In the fourth stanza the ton... ... middle of paper ... ... and then suddenly everything stops. For example, 'the drop of an axe and the smack' and 'a silent place that once rang loud'. The first speaker in the poem is more deeper and imaginative than the second speaker, for example when speaker A says, 'as if just before It was not empty, silent, still, but full of life of some kind, perhaps tragical.' The second speaker is more down-to-earth and certain, for example when speaker B says, 'Not that I know of. It is called the Dell.' This conveys two different images of the place to the reader, an imaginative one and a realistic one. Speaker B's reaction to Speaker A conveys to the reader that Speaker A is too pensive and thinks in to things too much. Speaker A's reaction to Speaker B conveys to the reader that Speaker A wants to keep his imaginations alive and that he doesn't want to know the truth surrounding the chalk-pit.

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