The Poem Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening - Essay Example

Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening The poem “Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening” isa small poem with little words but is full of big ideas. The poet, Robert Frost, talks about four themes including isolation, man and society, choices, and society and class. It revolves around the lonely life of poet where he finds himself very far from any other person or human being. He likes to be unaccompanied by anyone and is very contended that no one can watch him. He creates this scenario of isolation for himself and is happy to live in it. He finds this cold lonesome freezing night better and more confronting than his life back in his village. Nature is augmenting his aloneness as the night gets freezing cold, dark and it is snowing on its verge. In this poem poet talks about various choices he had to make. His horse also disagreed with him on several choices he made. The biggest and most important choice he had to make was whether to go back to his village or to stay in the woods in that cold night and he favored going home. It was a frenzied decision for him because he loved the deadly chilly night. At one side was the warmth cozy village and other side was freezing night and he had to return home to his village. The third theme describes the passionate relation between man and the natural world. Despite the fact that nature is well liked by poet in this poem but it seems frightening to an individual. The chilling cold night seems scary and mysterious but to the poet it looked seductive. The poet is mesmerized by the beauty of the forest and want to sit there watching it fill with snow. But, he knows it too that if he stays in the woods longer he will freeze and it will cause his demise. Nature is a mysterious inspiration to the poet in this poem as he wishes to stay in the woods in spite of the fact that they bear serious consequences. The last theme discussed in this poem is of society and class. We do not get a lot of information about where does the poet comes from as in how far he is from his village but we know that he is very far from human civilization. We also know from the poem that the person who owns this forest lives in a house in the town so we can assume that people who own things live in the middle of society. Poet is unconcerned about society or its people and wish to be alone in the woods. To us, village is the cute, warm and tranquil place but to the poet these qualities are part of the woods. To him, village is a reminder of his responsibilities, obligations and duties. This is a very deep poem with a lot of meanings and interpretations one could develop from it. One of the analyses that could be drawn from the poem is that the poet is considering a suicide by staying in the woods and die of the cold there. He wants to die in the isolation of the forest where no one can reach out to assist him. But then, he changed his mind and preferred his not so good life against it. He had certain obligations to fulfill, certain responsibilities which he has and jobs he had to finish before he dies. These promises that he made to some one made his heart turn towards the village and his home. He does not want to go back to his domicile but had to as nature with its scaring mode left him with no choice. I believe that we have to go in depth while reading this poem and have to contemplate it with differing perspectives or viewpoints. When reading this poem again and again, we can easily establish the idea that the poem is from the perspective of the horse. Horse is a third person here. Skeptics won’t even want to believe this idea but try considering it for a moment. It is a lost horse who is wandering through the forest and is torn down from running in the woods all day long and over fallen tractors. This horse does not want to go back to his master’s cottage and want to be splashed into horse chunks in the woods. As he comes near the house he says, “My little horse must think it queer” which means that this our little horse does not like stopping at the house and prefer to die in the cold. If we think of it this way we will see that it’s not any man who is sitting on the horse back but it’s the horse who is traveling and does not wish to go back home. If we take into account the idea of relativity, a person cannot have “miles to go”, it is a hackneyed idea to consider it so. It is the idea and mind of horse that can consider these options where it believes that his masters’ promises are more important to it than dying in the snowy woods. This poem reflects the dark, sinister, and drowsy snow covered woods and frightens the reader with its charisma of coldness. If I consider myself the horse, or the traveler, whoever the poet talks about, I will be left with a choice of either staying in the woods or going back to the comfy, warm and cozy domicile. I would rather stay there in the chilly tranquil woods but promises are what will keep me going and what kept the poet going. He had to return to his town whether he wanted it or not; to return to his own place. The two different and vast worlds discussed here are the woods representing the beauty, scenery of nature and the isolation and solitude that comes with it, and the commitments that need to be fulfilled. Poet wishes his demise in the lonesome woods, to sleep there forever; but no one can just plan to die without thinking about his past, future and present. Everyone has to fulfill their undertakings in life. Even though the poet is mesmerized by the beauty of the woods and wants to sleep there but he cannot elude his obligations. He wants to die enjoying the nature’s charisma rather than in a hospital fighting his ailments. He wants to choose the way he dies and want to make it pleasing for himself but alas! The poem talks again and again about his duties he still has to perform. The shaking of horse’s bells reminds him of his responsibilities which he cannot forgo. His horse recalled him of his contracts. matter whether he enjoys staying in the wood or not, he has to go. Life has to move on and cannot stay the way we want it to be. Life has to go on. We have to keep moving, fulfill our responsibilities and duties and jobs. Man somehow has to lead his life in a fashion of fulfilling commitments, promises and pledges and more the less cannot spend his life his own way around. References Pike, David L, and Ana M. Acosta. Literature: A World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, Essays. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print. Martin. A. Creative Flow in Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.[ONLINE] Available at: http://aleymartin.hubpages.com/hub/Creative-Flow-in-Robert-Frosts-Stopping-by-Woods-on-a-Snowy-Evening Read More