BY ROBERT FROST Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sounds the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
In Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost uses the woods as an
extended metaphor for approaching death. The title of the poem leaves out the article of the woods indicating that the woods are some kind of interminable force that has no real start or end. This could reflect an imperceptibly slow death of old age, rather than an accident or other sudden death. This is reinforced by the snowy evening, which is apparently crucial enough to be mentioned in the title. The title ties it to the metaphor of death by old age, using the word evening to imply a sense of approaching finality. Even the presence of the snow fits into the metaphor, with the snow linking it to winter and thus likening the whole poem to a cold and slow ending. Frost (no pun intended) continues the extended metaphor with the unnamed man in the village possibly being a reference to God, with the insinuated doubt in I think I know referring to possible scepticism or uncertainty about the possibility of someone being the master of death. The idea that He will not see me stopping might hint that God is in no rush to kill him and is instead ignoring him to let nature take its course. This furthers the extended metaphor of an inexorably approaching mortality. Frost also uses the speaker and his horse to address the issue of loneliness in old age. Throughout most of the poem, the speakers only companion is his little horse which gives his harness bells a shake in response to the stop. The horse with its animal instincts towards self-preservation may reflect the speakers life before the onset of old age. Frosts personification of the horse by way of the word ask suggests that this younger, more life-loving personality is wellrespected but ultimately subservient to his current one, but Frosts use of little also indicates a certain fondness the speaker has for his former life. Furthermore, the Rubai rhyme scheme for the first three stanzas could reflect the dullness that the speaker feels in his old age, as if time itself becomes flattened with merely a moment to break the monotony. The last stanza expresses the idea that the speaker is torn between the worlds of the dead and the living. The appeal of death seems to grip the speaker, as he muses that the woods are lovely, dark and deep. The juxtaposition of the words lovely and dark as two contrasting images add a richness of description that is quite far gone from the sweep of easy wind earlier on. This reflects the nature of death as something too great and momentous to ignore. The second line in the last stanza remains a little ambiguous, and some might interpret it as a reluctance to die on the part of the speaker. The promises to keep may refer to some unfinished duty to someone and the speaker being reluctant to die so as to fulfil that duty. I disagree with this however, due largely to the change in rhyme scheme from the Rubai style to a DDDD rhyme scheme. This indicates a change in the attitude of the speaker as the focus shifts from the landscape to the speakers inner voice.