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HUMALIT V25: Analysis of Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening by Robert Frost

Part I

Robert Frost is one of the more popular American poets. He was born on March 26, 1874

in San Francisco. He and his family later moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts after his father, who

was a journalist, died of tuberculosis. He started writing poetry in high school where he met his

future wife, Elinor Miriam White. He enrolled in Darthmouth College, but returned home after a

few months. In 1894, Frost published his first poem, My Butterfly: an Elergy, in The

Independent in New York. Afterwards, Frost and Elinor got married on December 19, 1895, and

had their first child, Elliot, in 1896. Frost attended university in Harvard in 1897, but dropped out

after two years due to health concerns, thereby never actually earning a degree. After their second

child, Lesley, was born, Frost and his family moved a farm in New Hampshire in 1900, and stayed

there for the next 12 years. This paved way for his deeper insight into rural life, which became

present many of his poems. In 1912, after selling their farm, they decided to move to England.

Frost who was then 38, was able to find a publisher for his first book of poems: A Boys Will

and a year later, North of Boston. Frost was able to meet two poets, Ezra Pound and Edward

Thomas, who became big influences in his career as a poet. A Boys Will was reviewed

favorably by Ezra Pound, which helped Frost gain recognition. Robert Frost credited one of his

most famous poems, A Road Not Taken, to Thomas indecision as to what path to take. When

WWI broke out, Frost and his family returned to America. In America, Frost gained popularity

and with the help of Henry Holt who became his permanent publisher from then on. He was able

to publish Mountain Interval, another collection of his works. He and his family finally settled
down on a farm in New Hampshire, where Frost began teaching. Frost has more than 40 honorary

degrees to his name and won four Pulitzer Prizes for his works as follows: New Hampshire

(1924), Collected Poems (1931), A Further Range(1937), and A Witness Tree (1943). In

1960, he was awarded by the US congress the Congressional Gold Medal. At 86, Frost recited the

Gift of Outright for president John F. Kennedys inauguration. On January 29, 1963, Frost died

from complications in a prostate surgery. Amherst college named their main library after him.

Robert Frost gained most of his inspiration from his life in England, and his failure in

farming. His life in England allowed him to spend time with Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas who

helped him establish himself as poet. His failures in farming gave him inspiration from his rural

life. Frost is also noted for his use of American colloquial speech and how particular he was with

form. He once said that, free verse is like playing tennis without a net, it aint tennis.

Part II

I found the poem, of Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening, to be rather simple.

The narrator stops in the woods to admire the scenery. The horse is confused and rings to the

narrator. The narrator would like to stay but he has promises to keep and miles to go before I

sleep. The owner of the woods is in the village, which seems like the logical thing to do since it

is the darkest evening of the year. To be in the woods, although mesmerizing and beautiful (the

narrator would want to watch the woods fill up with snow), seems illogical. The woods here seem

like the irrational decision while being in the village where society is, seems to be the rational

decision. The narrator would continue to stay in the woods, if not for his horse for which he cares

deeply about. The horse reminds him that they are in a wild area away from civilization or the

norm. The author is reminded of his duties and responsibilities by the horse. From my
understanding its a conflict of what society expects of you versus what you want to do. The

narrator would want to stay in the woods even though its the irrational choice and he would not

be allowed by the owner of the woods. In the end, although the narrator wanted to enjoy the wood

more, he had duties and responsibilities that needed to be met before he could rest. Resting here

could mean the author would get to do what he really wanted to do after he has fulfilled his duties.

Social pressures like the horse ringing to him, and the fear of the owner of the woods finding out

he is there, pushed the narrator to leave. Maybe this could be taken as Robert Frost wanting to

pursue his career as a poet but he had duties to his family that he must first keep. We can see that

Robert Frost didnt go straight into poetry but rather tried his hand at farming. The horse which

rang to him to leave the forest could have been his family who reminded him that he needed to

first make money to support them before he could pursue what he really wanted to do. The owner

of the woods, who was at the village but would condone him stepping into his property, could

mean societys pressures to follow the norm and get a job. We know that taking a career into the

arts is difficult and can be thought of straying away from the norm.

Looking at it deeper, I find that this paper can relate to many of us. We all have duties and

responsibilities we need to fulfill. No matter how impossible or how burdensome, we all must keep

our promises. Aside from that, society pressures us to make good on what is expected of us. We

have a duty to our parents to get good grades, we have a duty to our friends to be good friends to

them, and we have a duty to society to be what society expects us to be. These expectations and

pressures slowly creep up on us, eating at our persons. Sometimes we just want to stop and smell

the roses.

Aside from the simplicity of this poem, I chose it because of its message as well as its

structure. The message related to me especially with pressures from my parents and myself about
grades and success in the future. The poem structure on the other hand, I found to be very unique.

The poem uses iambic tetrameter. It has eight syllables, and follows an unstressed, stressed pattern.

It has the rhyming scheme of AABA where the third line in each stanza rhymes with the next three

lines in the following stanza. I find this to be a rather interesting rhyming scheme, that must be

hard to accomplish, but has a nice ring to it. The signature repetition of the last two lines in the last

stanza by Robert Frost also put great emphasis on the last line and last word, sleep.
References:

Robert Frost. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2016, from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/robert-

frost

Robert Frost Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2016, from

http://www.biography.com/people/robert-frost-20796091

Collected Poems of Robert Frost. (1986). New York: Buccaneer Books, Inc.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2016, from
http://www.shmoop.com/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening/analysis.html

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. (2016). Retrieved March 7, 2016, from

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section10.rhtml