"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

[archie977]

and miles to go befor i sleep i think i understand this poem but i know nothing

[musicloversingable]

A lovely poem beautifully read

[MABBAS433]

WISH I HAD A VOICE LIKE THIS 

[katucy123]

When the guy started talking, I literally jumped XD Lol. But, this is a wonderful poem. Love it.

[WalrusDoctor]

Seriously, though. I really enjoyed the impressions you made. I can see myself in a darkened wood covered with snow, stopping silent and watching the snow drift onto the trees. I feel almost like I've done such a thing before. But the feelings invoked are so strong, my idea might be artificial. When he repeats the last line twice I think he means there's somewhere else he'd rather be, but I don't know enough about Frost to say for sure.

[coolkayaker1]

I awoke this morning, near Illinois corn and drank in this poem, written by a poet from my Massachusetts, and read so eloquently by Spokenverse.

Truly authentic to the scribe himself,

who reads the verse, just so, himself,

no one else, on a youtube video that stands by itself.

And still as a blackbird, roosting on a post,

I listened to SpokenVerse read it clearly, utmost.

[boxertest]

Heard this first when I was a kid in high school and now fully grown its still good.

[thenbtshowtv]

hello i been reading this for 10 hours. I am tired and i need help to find a thesis to the road not taken and stopping by the woods on a snowy evening. i cant find a good thesis about setting ( time and place). thanks

[vEP1CK1LL3Rv1]

Well, I think that this poem is about suicide, but then when he says I have miles b4 I sleep he's meaning... I have a long life ahead if me, why end it now?

[demoniosolitario]

Beyond a grammatical interpretation, this poem is simply about enjoying life through our eyes and a subtle reminder that we shouldn't care what the rest of the world thinks... As far as we are happy. Sometimes. we forget to see the beauty of life like when we were just kids.

[davidjowell]

@demoniosolitario

Sorry, but you're wrong. Frost stayed up throughout the night and wrote this in the morning in what he called a state of hallucination. The "woods" is common american literary symbolism for the border of the earthly and supernatural, of death, and the darkness of the unknown. He is clearly entranced with the seduction of death in such a beautiful, silent woods, but heads onwards through the trudging miles of life.

[Torahboy1]

I sleep........ I sleep. This repetition is clearly a reference to Shakespeare's line about death, via suicide. "To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream...."

[jblw189]

I think it's about death, not suicide. He could easily die if he stopped and watched the woods fill, but his responsibilities ( the horse ) reminds him of his duties and his earthly obligations. He has to fulfill his commitments before he goes.

[LotusoftheRiver]

I like the way you read the last 2 lines.

[tattoofthesun]

beautiful beyond belief the wording of a traveling man that such a scene can be relief- these deep stares of a poet's pan and what few pictures underneath show low-filled woods under the words and though he stood so still and brief and left the white night undisturbed he left no smile, nod or grief but left his story to be stirred

[yuvizal]

holy shit that was such a balla last stanza.

[vivascargill]

the new edition gets the punctuation right Nabokov thought it the greatest american poem

[falstaffswims]

TO SLEEP, TO SLEEP. The loneliness of traveling through winter's long roads, and the cold, alone, so one is not... late for dinner? The lonely duty to report faithfully back to friends and company. Loneliness, amidst, and despite, and (only tolerated) for THE SAKE OF, ...Company. Loneliness.

[Dea9gari]

well, you should speak a bit slowlier I think. ...

but nice voice!

[SpokenVerse]

If a poem is read more slowly than normal reading speed then it loses structure: the rhymes and metre don't work.

If you're trying to learn it for school, use the pause button.

[deirnoel]

It should begin, "Whose woods these are...," not "Whose woods are these."

[SpokenVerse]

You're right and the version I copied is wrong. But it's a common mondegreen, as in:

"Whose woods are these I think I know

His house is in the village though

He will not see me stopping here

To sign my name in yellow snow."

[deirnoel]

fair dues. good voice.

[John27346]

LOL, that's good.

[mamashackfu]

@deirnoel um..poetic/artistic license dude.

[deirnoel]

@mamashackfu No, the reader says above that he copied the wrong version. It's a really nice reading. I just think it'd be even nicer if it were true to the poem (dude).

[heartsophocles]

Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets and this is my favorite poem of his.

My college entrance essay was an analysis of this poem (afterward relating it to my own life of course).

[Ahavati1]

"The last two lines appear to be the same, but do they mean the same thing?"

No; one is literal and the other eternal.

[bellrope]

Very appropriate for the shortest day of the year.

[Ahavati1]

Yes. I always thought of it as the darkest.

[PaleAfternoon]

I was curious as to the meaning of this poem. I've often thought it was about giving up on life or suicide. And what does he mean by the darkest evening of the year?

[marsinpisces]

darkest evening of the year might be the new moon around dec. 22 time. not at all about giving up or suicide. just an appreciation of being with a horse out in the woods in the snow, in the dark.

[PaleAfternoon]

Hmm, I guess I've always just thought of it differently. That he goes into these chosen woods to die. Purposely avoiding the villager who is in the town. His horse leads on to wonder if there is some mistake as to them being out that far. The last stanza to me tells us that he rethinks his decision because he knows he has responsibility left unfinished in his life. Maybe I've always just looked into too much. Either way it is a great poem and I appreciate your insight.

[falstaffswims]

Yes, it's about suicide. But if a poem about stopping by woods in the snow were MERELY "secret code" for a meditation on suicide? It would hardly, or barely, be POETRY. Poetry-and pardon me, but I'm not patronizing you, and I'm sure you know this--is about eloquence, astouding efficiency, MEANING MULTIPLY under the startlingly beautiful form of WORDS THEMSELVES.

[falstaffswims]

So, yes, it's about suicide. And it's about certain ironic social predicaments. And about family. And property. And snow. And woods. And evening. And stopping, impractically, for the sake of beauty. And the odd, impotent cunning and discernment of horses, who jingle. And narrowly skirting trespassing. And sleepiness. And miles to go. And miles to go. BUT, YES: ABOUT SUICIDE, SURELY, TOO, ALL OF THAT. ALL OF THIS POEM.

[falstaffswims]

But always less about giving up than NOT BEING ABLE to give up--daughters and friends and others we love are the owners of the PROMISES WE KEEP. For them, we go on for many more miles, then go on for many more. The beauty in this "fortitude" is, in part, its unconventionality--this is not hackneyed "courage," or "tenacious optimism." It's not that generic abstraction of "character," which deliberately means nothing in particular...

[falstaffswims]

IN SUM, it seems to me: HE RESISTS SUICIDE, NOT FOR COURAGE, ETC., BUT FOR SIMPLE OBLIGATION--IRONICALLY, OBLIGATION TO OTHERS, WHO ARE ALL AROUND IN HIS COMPANY, AND LOVED BY HIM--IRONIC, THAT IS, BECAUSE THERE'S A CLEAR NOTE OF UTTER LONELINESS--ESTRANGEMENT, ALIENATION, DETACHMENT--IN HIS NEEDFULLY FRUSTRATED DESIRE. WHICH IS, YES, ON A LEVEL: TO DIE. TO SLEEP, TO SLEEP.