Puritans

2 Pages 403 Words

Man’s Deep Thoughts in Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening is a poem that deals with the inner thoughts of a man. The speaker stops to soak in his surroundings on his way home. He begins to realize there are many beautiful things surrounding him. His thoughts begin to wander as he thinks about the snow, what the owner of the woods might think if he caught him stopping there, and what the horse thinks.
The speaker of the poem stops to rest for a moment. While he is stopped, he begins to look around. He sees the snow and hears the wind: “of easy wind and downy flake” (line 12). He realizes that the woods are filling up with snow. This is a beautiful sight. The frozen lake is far from him and it is the darkest day of the whole year.
As the speaker notices that the woods are filling up with snow, he begins to wonder “whose woods these are I think I know” (line1). This makes him wonder what the owner of the woods might think of his stopping out in the middle of the woods “between the woods and frozen lake” (line7). He soon reassures himself “the owner will not see me stopping here” (line 3) because his house is in the village though” (line 2).
Next, he wonders what the horse thinks: “my horse must think it queer” (line 5). He is not stopped close to a farmhouse, and the only thing one can hear is the falling snow and the horse’s bells: “The horse shakes his bells to ask if there is a mistake; he gives his harness bells a shake to ask if there is some mistake”(lines 9-10). The horse is probably tired and wants to hurry home, so the stop puzzles him.
The narrator stops to take in the beauty of the wintry surroundings. The whole scene that surrounds him has absolutely captivated his mind. The speaker thinks the woods are lovely, dark and deep. He also realizes that he must be on his way because he has promises to keep: “but I have pr...