Poetry Analysis Paper (Final)

Arpine Barseghyan
Dr. Wexler
English 495 ESM
2/18/13
  Nature vs. Social Obligations

Robert Frost’s, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is a compelling poem which represents Frost’s prominent themes of human limitations, isolation, and the juxtaposition of life and death. As an eminent author of American Modernist literature, Frost’s works have come to symbolize the human struggle with societal norms and the contemplative journey to self-discovery. His simplistic style of writing depicts common experiences, yet epitomizes universal motifs which chronicle the philosophical considerations of the individual. The multiple interpretations and connotations of his poetry is an amalgam of simple diction with obscure expression, making his renowned writing both accessible and enlightening to the masses. Although uncomplicated in its form and diction, the imagery of Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” represents the dichotomy between nature and social obligations.

The simplicity of Frost’s meter and rhythm places greater emphasis on the meanings garnered by his choice of often monosyllabic words. The poem consists of four stanzas following an AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDDD rhyme scheme and is written in iambic tetrameter, where each line consists of four iambic feet. The lines contain mostly single syllable words: know...though...snow, here, queer, near, year; thus the rhymes crowd together “embodying the rushed cadences of the man-made world” (Wakefield). The third line of each stanza sets up the rhyme for the following stanza. For example, in the first stanza, know, though, and snow all rhyme, but here rhymes with queer, near, and year in the following stanza, dragging the reader forward. The speaker is stopping by the woods on a snowy evening with his horse, and is tempted to stay longer, until he realizes that he has “Promises to keep / Miles to go before I sleep / Miles to go before I sleep” (14-16). On the surface, this poem seems to represent the temptation of death, even suicide, symbolized by the woods that are filling up with snow on the darkest evening of the year, however; the connotation of the woods, the horse, and the promises transcend the contemplation of death.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” exemplifies the opposition between nature and one’s duty to society. In the first stanza the speaker associates the woods with an owner, “Whose woods these are I think I know / His house is in the village though;” representing the woods as personal property rather than nature (1-2). The speaker’s horse, in the second stanza, personifies society and reason for, “My little horse might think it queer / To stop without a farmhouse near” (5-6). Frost is commenting on society’s disengagement from nature and the lack of interaction and solitude within the natural world. In stanza three, the horse gives his “harness bells a shake / to ask if there is some mistake;” the lure of the woods and being alone in its deep and dark presence is seen as irrational, which the horse signals with his bells (9-10). The bells are a reminder of his obligations, or “promises” as the speaker states in stanza four, to the society outside of the woods.
Stanza four provides the ultimate recognition of the dichotomy between the rational and irrational, between nature and social obligations. The speaker describes the woods for the first time, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,” yet does not dwell on the attraction and temptation of the woods, for he is reminded of the “promises” that he has to keep (14). The fear of being seen stopping by the woods “returns a man away from intimate contact with nature” and thus represents “the pull that the promises of modern life exert upon a man who feels a bond with nature” (Wakefield). The repetition of the last two lines of the poem, “And miles to go before I sleep / And miles to go before I sleep,” undermines the powerful lure of nature with the sense of belonging to the world of man; “the social side of his natures prevails over the psychic lure of the depths” (Shurr 585). The speaker’s responsibility to the civilized world overthrows the calm temptation of the woods, for the woods are not an accepted aspect of the social norm. Although the poem appears to solely present the contemplation of succumbing to death or continuing the journey of life, “it is about a man's separation from [the woods] and from the autonomy that would allow him to indulge his desire to appreciate them” (Wakefield). Ultimately, the speaker does not succumb to the aesthetic, psychological, and metaphorical allure of the woods, and chooses the rational over the irrational due to the demands of the man-made world.
Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” through its accessible diction and form, represents the conflicting opposition between nature and societal obligations. The poem comments on man’s declining engagement with nature, especially being in solitude within nature in a society thriving in industrialization. The familiar experience of walking through the woods comes to exemplify the speakers philosophical journey through self-reflection and the struggles between the desire to enjoy nature and the will to conform to society’s expectations. Frost epitomizes the dichotomy between the natural world and one’s duty to society, demonstrating the alluring effect of his simplistic writing form.


Works Cited

Shurr, William H. "Once More to the 'Woods': A New Point of Entry into Frost's Most Famous Poem." The New England Quarterly, 47.4 (1974): 584-595. JSTOR. Web. 15. Feb. 2013.

Wakefield, Richard. "Thomas Eakins and Robert Frost: To Be a Natural Man in a Man-made  World." The Midwest Quarterly, 41.4 (2000): JSTOR. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.