My english teacher gave us an assignment to do a write up on the poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. I have no idea what the poem means or what its about! We have to do 3 pages and its due Monday! Ahhhh! Please help me!
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 sound's 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.
Kelsey, follow the links listed here:
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Les
Good luck, kid. I am currently teaching this poem, and I disagree with everything that I have read about it. First, I'm not a religious nut by any means. It is clearly about a man on the verge of succumbing to temptation of some sort. They are God's woods. His house (kingdom) is in the village(heaven). He will not see me stopping here--the only reason that we fall to sin is that for a split second, we are tricked into believing that God can't see us. The darkest evening of the year--dark because he is about to succumb to his temptations. The horse is his conscience, or even the Holy Spirit, if you will, wondering how the man can be so foolish as to stop and think even for an instant that God can't see him. The horse even shakes his bells ( an obvious religious symbol) to snap the narrator back to reality. So, we next have the sound of bells (conscience calling) versus easy wind (how easy it is to fall to temptation). The woods (sin) is lovely (fun, usually)dark (satanic) and deep (hellish)...But, conscience wins out and he has promises (to God) to keep, and miles to go (many other temptations) before I sleep (death, obviously).
how the man can be so foolish as to stop and think
even for an instant that God can't see him.
He must have been out for a short beer when the recent tsunami struck, I infer.
More seriously, the link below has good discussion of the poem:
[www.english.uiuc.edu]
As an interpretation, it hangs together, so it seems legitimate to me. It's not how I see the poem, but that's what interpretation is all about- how YOU see it.
pam
I grant you have come up with a coherent and interesting metaphorical interpretation, and don't say its nutty, but can't say either that it's obviously the only right one. As a teacher of the poem, aren't you at risk of being a tad too dogmatic?
Ian
Pedantic, parochial
But certainly not a religious nut, no.