“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is an extremely well known poem by one of America’s most famous poets, Robert Frost. Although this poem initially may appear to be quite simple, one shall discover that this poem actually contains a much more complex meaning. This poem is generally about the speaker pausing his journey to take a second to appreciate the beautiful aspects of winter around him. Not much is revealed about this speaker, except for the fact that his love for nature is very clear to the reader. Despite the simplicity of the overall summarization of the poem, there is a more profound meaning when taken at a closer look through prevailing elements such as imagery, figures of speech, rhythm, tone, and form. With the use of these
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The alliteration used in this poem solely describes the darkness and quietness of the woods, for instance when the speaker describes the woods as “sound’s the sweep” (ln 11) and “dark and deep” (ln 13). By describing how quiet and dark these words are reveals to the reader that the speaker is very much alone in this dark setting, and actually seems to enjoy it. Frost also uses personification to exemplify the horse to be communicating with him. While first stopping in the woods, the speaker shares that his “little horse must think it queer” (ln 5) and “He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake” (ln 10). The personification of the horse represents the loneliness of the speaker in his journey, and also reveals that the speaker is actually quite caring for his horse. Personifying the horse also leads the reader to believe that the horse is the reason as to why the speaker decides to leave the woods and continue his journey, possibly approaching death. Frost also uses figure of speech, portraying sleep as an extended metaphor for death, to help to achieve the poem’s purpose. With the constant images of darkness and wintertime to suggest death and seclusion, the last two lines of the poem really convey the theme of the speaker approaching death towards the end. The last two lines …show more content…
The poem’s stanza form is the most widely used form and most versatile unit in American poetry, the quatrain. A quatrain is a four-lined stanza with lines of similar length and a set rhyme scheme. In this case, each line of the poem contains eight syllables and contains a rhyme scheme of AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDDD. As for the meter of this poem, it exemplifies iambic tetrameter, meaning it has four feet per line and progressing from an unstressed to a stressed syllable. For example, in lines one through
The alliteration used in this poem solely describes the darkness and quietness of the woods, for instance when the speaker describes the woods as “sound’s the sweep” (ln 11) and “dark and deep” (ln 13). By describing how quiet and dark these words are reveals to the reader that the speaker is very much alone in this dark setting, and actually seems to enjoy it. Frost also uses personification to exemplify the horse to be communicating with him. While first stopping in the woods, the speaker shares that his “little horse must think it queer” (ln 5) and “He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake” (ln 10). The personification of the horse represents the loneliness of the speaker in his journey, and also reveals that the speaker is actually quite caring for his horse. Personifying the horse also leads the reader to believe that the horse is the reason as to why the speaker decides to leave the woods and continue his journey, possibly approaching death. Frost also uses figure of speech, portraying sleep as an extended metaphor for death, to help to achieve the poem’s purpose. With the constant images of darkness and wintertime to suggest death and seclusion, the last two lines of the poem really convey the theme of the speaker approaching death towards the end. The last two lines …show more content…
The poem’s stanza form is the most widely used form and most versatile unit in American poetry, the quatrain. A quatrain is a four-lined stanza with lines of similar length and a set rhyme scheme. In this case, each line of the poem contains eight syllables and contains a rhyme scheme of AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDDD. As for the meter of this poem, it exemplifies iambic tetrameter, meaning it has four feet per line and progressing from an unstressed to a stressed syllable. For example, in lines one through