Thursday, January 13, 2011

Poetry Response: Stopping by woods on a snowy evening

Stopping by woods on a snowy evening
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 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.


I chose this poem because it was one of the poems Robert Frost wrote that I found interesting. Like his other poems it can be viewed differently by different people. He uses a regular rhyme scheme that gives it a rhythm. I've observed many things. I like how it had a meaning every line of the poem and that it was interesting that he keeps rhyming the words with the word sleep in the last stanza. I think his meaning was to say that even though the view of the woods are nice, he still has miles to go because he had promises to keep. In the first paragraph it is a bit confusing since it saids that " he will not see me stopping here " when we don't know who " he " is.

This poem saids that you should not stop and give up like he did to stare at the woods because he had promises but a long way to go. There is a deep meaning to the last 2 lines in the last stanza. I think it means that his sleep is his final sleep so he should do it before his time has gone.

Promises are easy to make but hard to keep. This poem has taught me that no matter what is standing in your way to keeping that promise, you must tried to keep on moving forward. I also think the little horse is  symbolic telling the person that it isn't time to stop yet and has to finish what he started even in the darkest evening of the year. 

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