Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Simple Poem or Complex Themes
Frost uses symbolism, including characters and objects, in an effort to create the various themes for the reader. The adjective “little” describes the horse as something that isn’t dangerous; however, the little horse’s character has a significant purpose (C5 1). The harness bells, worn by the horse, are a reminder to the speaker of his duties (G 1). The mention of the unnamed owner of the woods by the speaker causes difficulties that cannot be easily detected. The speaker focuses less on the woods than on the thought that they didn’t belong to him. The unnamed owner of the woods is thought to be a society person that lives in the nearby village (C2, 1). The speaker provides the reader a picture of what occurs in the poem (B4,2). Because he mentions the owner of the woods, the reader can contemplate that he respects the property of others. It seems that it would be more upsetting to him to be observed by the owner of the woods than by the horse. Although it is obvious the speaker wants a private moment in the woods, the reader is left wondering what the speaker is really thinking (C3, 1-2).
Resistant objects are another form of symbolism used in “Stopping by Woods.” The woods represent life in an uncivilized world (B5 3). The speaker feels an attraction to the woods; for that reason, he immediately allows the setting to provide him a brief time away from his daily responsibilities (E2, np). Right away the speaker acknowledges that he does not own woods. The last stanza includes a few more descriptive words about the woods; although, the woods do not appear to be the whole purpose of the poem (F1 354).
Frost uses both visual and audio imagery to reveal various facts to the reader.
“He will not see me stopping here” reveals to the reader that the speaker believes no one will see him and so he feels all right about the things he is thinking. “To watch his woods fill up with snow” implies that the speaker has been watching for a while. The way that Frost writes the poem, it is as if the reader can hear the speaker’s thoughts (D1 16). The harness bells of the little horse provides another audio imagery.
The voice of the speaker in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” is that of an individual that is stressed out or overwhelmed. He or she just needs to take a mental break from everything and, “stop by the words/to watch [them] fill with snow.” The reader knows that this person needs to take this mental break based upon how long they stay there. He or she stays in the woods so long that their horse “give his harness bells a shake/to ask if there is some mistake.” In other words, the horse is confused; here he stands in these woods “without a farmhouse near [and] the only other sound [he hears, aside from his own bells, are,] the sweep of easy wind and [a] downy flake.” This sense of being overwhelmed, and needing to take a mental break in order to remain sane, is something any reader can relate to, whether they have had a stressful day at work, a parent is using the poem as an example to show a child who has had a temper tantrum that they are being puni...
Frost's use of imagery and parallelism of what the dark night sky looks like indicates that he is often alone and wanders the empty, cold streets late at night. This also makes it seem as though he was the only one out at night this late and that he feels depressed about his devastating situation. His uses of, "I have been..." repeatedly in lines 1-7 suggests that his depression is ongoing from the past, unclear if he would recover from his depressing past. The reader can feel through his words that even though he can hear sounds of people ("an interrupted cry") on the streets and occasionally bumps into people, he feels alone in this world. Through his actions, Frost makes it seem as though no one in the world cares for him and he is completely isolated and restricted from interacting with people. At one point in the poem, he hears a cry from a nearby street, but realizes that it was not meant for him and that no one is ever waiting for him. He uses the phrase, "I have passed by the watchman on his beat/And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain, " to show his experiences with depression and how it has made him incapable of interacting in normal society. While normal people are typically associated with the day, enjoying happiness, sunlight, and optimism, he focuses the narrator to being solely with the night, finding
The fluency of the first three groups of lines in a poem being an 'AABA' rhyming big plan/layout/dishonest plan and winter setting guesses (based on what's known) the hypnotic state of the speaker that has been caused by the woods. Frost shows a good example of the speakers want to escape responsibilities through the unbroken curve of rhythm in the second line as it shows/represents the flirty nature of the "farmhouse near" in the woods. It is through frost (existing as a perfect living example of something/creating a living representation of something) the horse through "my little horse must think it queer" which overshadows the unusual behaviour of the speaker as the speaker thinks things over carefully whether to enter the attractive woods- this is just like in Big World where winton uses the mother's (way of seeing things / sensible view of what is and is not important) to give/discuss something the reality of the (person telling the story)'s friendship with Biggie. The horse is also (existing as a perfect living example of something/created a living representation of something) as a symbol of warning to the speaker of the need to stay on task (even though there is the existence of) tempting other choices. However, the scary language such as 'darkest evening' brings across that the speaker is being
Robert Frost is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Frost’s work has been regarded by many as unique. Frost’s poems mainly take place in nature, and it is through nature that he uses sense appealing-vocabulary to immerse the reader into the poem. In the poem, “Hardwood Groves”, Frost uses a Hardwood Tree that is losing its leaves as a symbol of life’s vicissitudes. “Frost recognizes that before things in life are raised up, they must fall down” (Bloom 22).
...unded demands of the world. The twig against the eye is a reminder of his youthful idealism, which is entwined with nature. However, Frost reveals that he has learned much in his years. He would like to go back and allow the branches to throw him upward toward transcendence, but he asks that fate not misunderstand his intentions. He doesn’t want to be thrown forever into transcendence because that would separate him from Love, which is earth-bound. He uses black and white to suggest the necessary duality between striving for transcendence and being on earth, where love and community also aids in the experience he seeks. He shows this in a metaphor where he climbs the tree to the top, and it gently brings him back down to the earth. In this metaphor, he is not only showing the duality behind transcendence, but he also reveals the unity between nature and humanity.
Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a "buzz-saw." The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls he and the other workers to come for "Supper." As the boy hears its dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last sentence of the poem, "since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves.
The first technique he uses is imagery. Frost does this at the beginning of the poem by talking about all of the beauty of nature that is around the boy. For example, he talks about the mountains in the distance that the boy does not see because he is too busy working. Another example and the most important use of imagery in this poem is the snarling and rattling of the saw. This is essential because it gives the readers a since of life to the saw. Lastly, the sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it gives the reader not only smell but also touch. All of these examples of imagery helps set the mood for the reader and puts them into the poem as an onlooker. Another technique that he uses is figurative language. The saw “snarled and rattled” is the use of figurative language and onomatopoeia because it represents the fate of the boy and the animal-like noise that accompanies the fate. Also, “Call it a day” is figurative language because this represents that if the boy was told to stop working earlier he might have never lost his and hand and would not have died. Frost also uses figurative language when he wrote “The life from spilling” meaning that literally the blood is gushing from his arm and so his life is quickly fading away because the more blood loss the faster arrival of death will come. Irony can also be found in “Out, out” when the boy laughs after his hand is cut off by the saw. This ironic because usually people do not laugh at these types of situations and have the complete opposite reaction which is usually panic. Frost also uses blank verse and no stanzas to convey emotion throughout the poem. He does this by showing the light heartedness of the setting at the beginning of the poem and is invested in the boy, but then as the poem continues he detaches himself from the emotional aspect of the situation the boy is in. For example, when is says, “Call it a day , I
In the last stanza, the author does something very interesting. The author states," I shall be telling this with a sigh" which further reveals the point to the reader. That through out the story he has been telling it in past tense, when he says,"I" he places the poem in present tense. Frost intentionally did this to draw attention to specific part of the poem. In addition, the author makes it clear of how indecisive he is when it come to making a decision to what road she wants to go on. When the author states, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” which indicates that he was leveling and weighing his decision about what road to take. With the use of analogy, we see that the author is comparing the to roads in order to see which one he should take. Which sends a message that he is hesitant of his
In his narrative poem, Frost starts a tense conversation between the man and the wife whose first child had died recently. Not only is there dissonance between the couple,but also a major communication conflict between the husband and the wife. As the poem opens, the wife is standing at the top of a staircase looking at her child’s grave through the window. Her husband is at the bottom of the stairs (“He saw her from the bottom of the stairs” l.1), and he does not understand what she is looking at or why she has suddenly become so distressed. The wife resents her husband’s obliviousness and attempts to leave the house. The husband begs her to stay and talk to him about what she feels. Husband does not understand why the wife is angry with him for manifesting his grief in a different way. Inconsolable, the wife lashes out at him, convinced of his indifference toward their dead child. The husband accepts her anger, but the separation between them remains. The wife leaves the house as husband angrily threatens to drag her back by force.
Robert Frost uses metaphor and symbolism extensively in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, developing deeper and more complex meanings from a superficially simple poem. Frost’s own analysis contributes greatly to our appreciation of the importance of metaphor, claiming that “metaphor [is] the whole of thinking,” inviting the reader to interpret the beautiful scene in a more profound way. However, the multitude of possible interpretations sees it being read as either carefully crafted lyric, a “suicide poem, [or] as recording a single autobiographical incident” . Judith Oster argues, therefore, that the social conditions individual to each reader tangibly alter our understanding of metaphor. Despite the simplicity of language, Frost uses conventional metaphors to explore complex ideas about life, death and nature. The uncertainty, even in the concluding stanza, that encompasses the poem only adds to the depth of possible readings.
"Stopping by Woods" The visible sign of the poet's preoccupation is the recurrent image of dark woods and trees. The world of the woods, a world offering perfect quiet and solitude, exists side by side with the realization that there is also another world, a world of people and social obligations. Both worlds have claims on the poet. He stops by woods on this "darkest evening of the year" to watch them "fill up with snow," and lingers so long that his "little horse" shakes his harness bells "to ask if there is some mistake." The poet is put in mind of the "promises" he has to keep, of the miles he still must travel. We are not told, however, that the call of social responsibility proves stronger than the attraction of the woods, which are "lovely" as well as "dark and deep"; the poet and his horse have not moved on at the poem's end. The dichotomy of the poet's obligations both to the woods and to a world of "promises"--the latter filtering like a barely heard echo through the almost hypnotic state induced by the woods and falling snow-is what gives this poem its singular interest.... The artfulness of "Stopping by Woods" consists in the way the two worlds are established and balanced. The poet is aware that the woods by which he is stopping belong to someone in the village; they are owned by the world of men. But at the same time they are his, the poet's woods, too, by virtue of what they mean to him in terms of emotion and private signification.
The first stanza can be interpreted in different ways. The speaker believes that he knows the woods where he is stopping, even though he is not near the village where the house is. In the line, "He will not see me stopping here, to watch his woods fill up with snow," the speaker may be a little concerned about who is watching him because he does not want people to talk about him in any other way than masculine. If he is seen watching the snowfall, then some might consider him less of a man. The speaker simply wants to sit and watch the snow fill up someone's woods.
The speaker knows he can not stay in this "paradise".(14) The speaker does not want to leave this spot, but he has made other promises that he has to keep. (14) I believe Frost uses repetition of the last two lines of this poem (and miles to go before I sleep) to emphasize the importance of this promise he has made, and to support the speakers reasons for having to leave. (15-16)I am not a big fan of poetry, but this poem caught my eye because I am a fan of nature. Frost and I would have had a lot in common, his poetry reflects many of my own personal views of nature.
Then in the last stanza Frost mentions woods again. Even though the narrator has a long way to go he always has enough time to stop and watch the small thing in nature in detail. This goes to show that Frost’s interest in nature is very large, and he portrays this through his characters.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” examines the relationship between the narrator and his surroundings. It appears as if the narrator admits a close personal connection with nature that can be viewed as irrational to the rest of the people. The narrator meets a horse for who he is sorry for being in the dark along. This horse being abandoned is without food and water. He is exhibiting his humanism and for his love for animals as well. A meaning behind the horse can be is that horse are domesticated animals. Being an animal, it is a part