Markus Freeman
11/30/15
Poetry Essay In the poem Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening is a very unique and dark poem written by Robert Frost. The poem initially allows for the writer as well as the readers to appreciate nature, however the poem is more complex as one begins to uncover the dark and mysterious true meaning of the poem. Robert Frost’s poem demonstrates his exhaustion of life and longing for death through the use of figurative language. The poem starts out as the writer begins to enter into the woods and claims that he knows who the woods belong too and the person who owns the woods will not see him stopping by then goes on to say that his horse must think it is queer to be stopping in the woods on the darkest evening of the year. Furthermore, the horse gives his harness bells a shake because it believes there is a mistake that they are in the woods. The writer proclaims that the woods are lovely, dark, and deep but he can’t stay because he has promises back in the villages that he has to keep and miles to go before he can sleep. There can be many interpretations of the poem but one can see that the writer is speaking in a figurative language. The poem is very dark and mysterious and portrays a message of death. The woods are described as lovely, dark, and deep. In this description, the writer admires the woods and portrays them as dark and deep leading the reader to believe that there is something beyond the message of admiring nature. The reader can also gather that the reader prefers death over life simply by the village representing life and the woods representing death. As the horse shakes his harness bells, the reader can conclude that this may be a figurative reminder to the writer that although death is preferred, there is life to be had and responsibilities to be fulfilled. As mentioned at the end of the poem, the write has promises to keep and miles to go before he sleeps, this can be implied that before the write approaches death, which he prefers, he must go about his duties through out life. The author of the poem is known to use sounds of words in his writing to influence his readers through out his writing. For example, the author uses the word “woods” instead of the word “forest.” One can believe that this is because “woods” portrays a more mysterious and dark tone as opposed to the word “forest.” One can conclude that this poem is a lyric poem. This is because the writer is talking as if the character in the poem were himself. As one can see, the poem seems simplistic as it is read in a literal sense. Although the writer may simply talks about his desire to spend time as he admires it, before realizing he must return to the village, one can conclude that the poem is written in figurative language to reveal a much deeper meaning of the poem such as nature representing death and the village representing responsibility. The writer seems to contemplate death until he realizes that he has work to complete. Robert Frost’s poem demonstrates his exhaustion of life and his desire for death.