Theme Of Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening is a poem written by Robert Frost in the year 1922. While reading the poem, you need to remember that words such as queer and gay did not mean the same as almost a hundred years ago as they do now. Although it was a simpler time, people had concerns. Not every household had a vehicle and if they did they owned one. People still walked, rode bicycles, buses and rode taxis. The buses would run between cities not only within and people in rural areas could flag down buses coming from one city to another. The poem is complex in theme, setting, and characters. First, the poem gives the theme of secrecy, “His house is in the village though (2).” The person who owns the land does not live in the area the character has stopped. The man is secretly stopping there and says, “He will not see me stopping here (3),” that line implies he does not want the owner to find out he is there, and since the …show more content…
The line, “But I have promises to keep (14),” suggests that the character is working. At the time, the poem was written, mostly men were employed, and women would not have been working or traveling alone on a snowy, dark, and frigid night. Another line, “And miles to go before I sleep (15),” backs up the belief the person in the poem is a man that is working. Although, the character wanted to stop his cold, lonely travels for the night he could not. The horse is the other character, and the line, “My little horse must think it queer (5),” does not mean gay or homosexual. At the time, this poem was written, it meant odd, weird, or unusual. Therefore, we know it was not the person’s habit to stop in that place. Animals, especially horses, remember directions and routes they regularly take so the horse shakes his bells to get the man’s attention. The horse, “gives his harness bells a shake (9),” as if to ask what is