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Theme Of Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

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In “Stopping by the Woods on a snowy evening”, Robert Frost who is the author, constructs a hidden message of suicide throughout the poem. The narrator of the story takes a stroll through the woods, beside him is his horse and his slay. While he is attracted to the excellence of the forested areas, his horse shakes his harness bells to imply he must go home. The horse makes it known that he has commitments at home but that doesn’t pull him far from the charm of nature. On the other hand, is he really admiring the woods or is he contemplating suicide? This poem seems so pleasant, but I believe it indicates a deeper concern to the theme of suicide.
While analyzing the text, in the first stanza, the speaker in the ballad, locates us to where …show more content…
For example, line 13 states, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep,” again the speaker keeps going back and forth whether or not he should give in. This particular theme has been constructed all throughout the poem. In my opinion, when I read ‘dark and deep’ I think of a grave in this specific situation. When someone is buried it’s in a place that is ‘dark and deep’, the woods are his grave which is another indication of death. At the same time, he then says, “But I have promises to keep”, he knows he is obligated to return to society but does he actually? The last two lines are quite interesting, they are repeated: “And miles to go before I sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep”. I believe ‘sleep’ is a metaphor for death, he mentioned in the beginning of the stanza that “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep”. The last two lines also mention ‘miles before’, I believe he entered the ‘deep’ woods. The ballad doesn’t specifically tell us how many miles the woods are but the repetition of the last two lines include “many miles”, which implies it must be far. I believe the narrator left his horse in the wild and walked for many miles. I believed he walked so no one can see him especially God. By Frost repeating the last two lines it created a feeling of dreadfulness for the reader, the speaker must go and forget about his obligations. Frost leaves it up to the reader to figure out their own ending, the diction choice he used throughout the poem makes me believe he must

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