Chapter 5Modernism (3)

Robert Frost

Assignment What are the features of Robert Frost What are the form and meter of Stopping by Woods on

a Snowy Evening? What are the themes of Stopping by Woods on a Snow

y Evening? Find lines from the poem to support the themes and statel the thoughts expressed by the lines.

Answer the four questions on page 196 from The Selected Readings.

Outline

Brief introduction Life (omitted)His literary ideasExperiencing and appreciating S

topping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Brief introduction

* Occupation Poet, playwright

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed themes from the early 1900s rural life in New England, using the setting to examine complex social and philosophical themes.

A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. In a sense, Frost stands at the crossroads of nineteenth-century American poetry and modernism, for in his verse may be found the culmination of many nineteenth-century tendencies and traditions as well as parallels to the works of his twentieth-century contemporaries.

His literary ideas

*He maintained that a poem is "never a put-up job.... It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, homesickness and loneliness. It is never a thought to begin with. It is at its best when it is a tantalizing vagueness.“

*He holds to restore to literature the "sentence sounds that underlie the words," the "vocal gesture" that enhances meaning.

*Frost is aware of the distances between one man and another, and also always aware of the distinction, the ultimate separateness, of nature and man.

*Frost focuses on those moments when the seen and the unseen, the tangible and the spiritual intersect.

* He never completely abandoned conventional metrical forms for free verse .

* He has the idea of order, of form of the past which should not be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past.

* He was more abstract, conceptual awareness of language and stressed a fascination with the meaning of meaning. In between these extremes of the practical and the abstract, he paid attention to the act of creativity, methods of composition, the relation of poet to reader, the nature of originality.

* He tells that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is the most important of all to reach the heart of the reader.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Introduction SummaryThemesLiterary device (technique)

Introduction When you read the title, maybe you think of

a Chinese poem, Robert Frost wrote "Stopping by Woods on a

Snowy Evening" in 1922, two years before winning the first of his four Pulitzer Prizes. The poem tells the story of a man traveling through some snowy woods on the darkest evening of the year, and he's pretty much in love with what he sees around him. He's on his way back to town, but he can't quite tear himself away from the lovely and dark woods.

People love to talk about what this poem means. Some argue that it is simply a description of a man appreciating nature. Others would tell that there is some heavy metaphor action going down, and that the poem is about death. And there are those who take it a step further and say that this poem addresses suicide. Nature-lovers see it as a piece that trumpets nature and that scorns civilization. You probably have your own idea of what this poem means.

Robert Frost is a beloved American poet, and many people associate him with nature and with the New England landscape, because, well, he liked to write about nature and the New England landscape. He was born in San Francisco (land of the sourdough), but spent most of his years in snowy places like Massachusetts and New Hampshire (land of the maple syrup).

Frost is known for creating simple poems that can be interpreted on many different levels. He also loved to inject everyday, colloquial speech into his poems. He was big on sounds, often talking about how the sounds of words carry more meaning than the words themselves.

(Here is what Frost says: "What we do get in life and miss so ofte

n in literature is the sentence sounds that underlie the words. Words themselves do not convey meaning, and to [. . . prove] this, . . . let us take the example of two people who are talking on the other side of a closed door, whose voices can be heard but whose words cannot be distinguished.

Even though the words do not carry, the sound of them does, and the listener can catch the meaning of the conversation. . . . [T]o me a sentence is not interesting merely in conveying a meaning of words. It must do something more; it must convey a meaning by sound.")

So, if we follow Mr. Frost's advice, we shouldn't be so concerned with what this poem means as concerned with how it means. Let's warm up our vocal chords and perk up our ears.

Summary• Brief Summary• Line-By-Line understanding

*Brief Summary

Our speaker is in the woods, but he's trespassing. He first wonders who owns these woods. In the same breath, he tells us that he thinks he does know who owns them. The lucky landowner lives in a house in the village. So, our speaker won't get into trouble for trespassing, because there's no one to catch him trespassing.

Our speaker has a horse, and this horse is little. Our speaker psycho-analyzes his little horse and supposes that the little horse must think it's pretty strange for them to be stopping in the middle of nowhere, with no one in sight, with not even a farmhouse close by, and absolutely no sign of hay. The speaker and his little horse are chilling (pun intended) between the woods and a frozen lake. Ice skating? No. Also, it

happens to be the darkest evening of the year.

Little Horse is starting to really lose it. Fortunately, he has some harness bells on his back, and he gives them a little shake in order to get his master's attention. The only other sounds are of a slight wind and of falling snow. It's quiet.

Our speaker admits to having a hankering for the dark woods, but he tells us he's got things to do, people to see and places to go. He's got a long way to go before he can rest his head on his little pillow, so he had better get going.

*Line-By-Line understanding

Stanza I (Lines 1-4)

Line 1

Whose woods these are I think I know.

Our speaker is not confident. This line begins as a question,( and as we're totally ready to get on board the question train,) but then, halfway through the line, he switches it up.

He wonders initially who owns "these woods." The word these make us realize that our speaker is actually near the woods in question.

*Our speaker then tells us he thinks he knows who owns these woods. Notice how he doesn't say he knows who owns these woods; he says he thinks he knows.

Why doesn't our speaker say, "I think I know whose woods these are"? What would be lost or gained if the poem began with that rewritten line?

Line 2

His house is in the village though;

The speaker thinks he knows the owner of woods, and this owner lives in a house in the village.( Civilization, sweet, sweet civilization! )

This line tells us that there is a village around here somewhere. The word "village" reminds us of thatched roofs,

smoke curling out of little chimneys, and of a few stores and homes clustered around a single main street; in other words, a village is not the most hopping place in the world.

*However, our speaker is relieved that the owner of the woods is in the village – now he doesn't have to worry about getting caught trespassing on someone else's property.

Line 3 He will not see me stopping here Why “will not” used here? This woods-

owner guy must be pretty strict if our speaker is seen taking a breather on his property.

*The speaker is almost trying to calm himself down and reassure himself that the owner "will not see me stopping here,"

as though he believes that saying so makes it true. It's similar to the magical phrase, "If I can't see them, they can't see me," uttered by Haley Joel Osment in the movie Sixth Sense.

*This line also tells us that the speaker has stopped, that he's hanging out at the moment.

Line 4

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

He's hardcore trespassing so that he can…watch the snow fall?

*Yes, he has stopped in order to take a gander at snow falling on cedars.

Stanza II (Lines 5-8)

Line 5

My little horse must think it queer

This tells that the speaker is not alone! He has a horse, and this horse is little. Maybe a pony.

*The speaker and his little horse probably spend a lot of time together, because our speaker is totally able to read the little horse's mind.

*He imagines that his horse is thinking that things are a little strange now.

Line 6

To stop without a farmhouse near

The speaker continues to read his horse's mind, and imagines the horse is thinking something, perhaps, along the lines of, ("Whoa, why are we stopping here? We're in the middle of nowhere Ville. Where's my dinner? I don't know about you, but I'm cold. There isn't even a farmhouse close by – what's going on?)"

*The fact that our speaker even attempts to figure out what his horse is thinking shows that he's a caring kind of guy, and that he's aware that stopping in the middle of some snowy woods is kind of a random thing to do.

Line 7

Between the woods and frozen lake

Now we get on just where, exactly, the speaker and his horse have stopped: they are currently hanging out between the woods and the "frozen lake," so they must be on a little patch of snowy shore line with dark trees to one side and a glossy, ice-covered lake to the other.

*It must be really cold if the lake is frozen, and we also are kind of intrigued by the fact that the speaker is not riding through the woods, but is right beside the woods.

Line 8

The darkest evening of the year.

Not only is it snowy and wintry, but it's also approaching nighttime too.

*Why is this speaker dilly-dallying when the light is dying and the snow is falling? A lot of people in his place would want to scurry home as fast as is humanly possible.

"The darkest evening of the year" makes us think of the winter solstice, which occurs in late December (in the northern hemisphere) each year and marks the moment at which the sun is at its farthest possible distance from the observer.

*Whatever the case may be, it's dark out and it's getting darker by the minute. We don't think that the speaker is the kind of guy to pack flashlights.

Stanza III (Lines 9-12)

Line 9

He gives his harness bells a shake

Even though the speaker can read his little horse's mind, the horse can't talk back. So, the next best option is to shake his booty. And by shaking his booty, we mean that he shakes his harness a little. There are little bells attached to his harness, which give a nice little jingle.

Line 10

To ask if there is some mistake.

Again with the mind reading. Our speaker knows his horse is shaking his bells in order to "ask" his master if something is awry, is there's a problem.

*It's kind of like the horse is saying, ("Hey, is everything OK? We've been standing here staring at nothing for a little while, and I just wanted to make sure you didn't need me to keep on trucking'. I'm cool with the standing still thing, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't misinterpreting you.")

Line 11The only other sound's the sweep Beyond the harness bells' shaking, the only o

ther sound that the speaker can hear is the "sweep."

*The word "sweep" makes us think of the sound brooms make when they sweep dust into a dustpan.

*At this point, we realize that the speaker is taking inventory of all of the sounds around him. He's interested in sounds.

Line 12

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The sweeping noise comes from the slight wind and the softly falling snow.

*Have you ever listened to snow falling? It's very, very quiet. There's just a gentle whirr. Everything is very, very still.

Stanza IV (Lines 13-16)

Line 13

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

Our speaker finally admits to liking the woods. We knew it all along. He's entranced by the darkness and deepness of the woods, and he thinks they are lovely.

*Dark and deep woods are awesome in our book, but they also make us feel slightly anxious. There's something mysterious about the maze-like nature of woods and forests.

*The point, though, is that our speaker digs these woods.

Line 14

But I have promises to keep,

Our speaker begins this line with the word "but." The word "but" makes us think that the speaker is contemplating staying in these woods rather than returning to the village to fulfill the promises he's made.

*These promises may be things like, "I'll be home for dinner, mom," or they may be things like, "Let's get married," or "I will take care of you."

*Regardless of whether these are big promises or little promises, our speaker flirts momentarily with the idea of breaking them, before deciding against it.

Line 15

And miles to go before I sleep,

Our speaker really is in the middle of nowhere, because he's still got a few miles to go before he can rest his head on his pillow. He better roll out soon.

*But we feel like we are well acquainted with that feeling of being so far away from where you need to be that it almost seems easier to just give up and hang out.

Line 16And miles to go before I sleep.　　　 OK, so our speaker must really be far from h

ome, because he feels the need to repeat the fact that he's got miles to go. (“Miles” is too far for him to go. Three layers of meaning here: he has to keep his promise and go away form the woods; he is tired, and it is snowing and dark without a farmhouse to stay in, miles is a long way to go; he likes this place, he does not want to leave, but have to.)( answer to question 4 on p196)

*However, when he says the line a second time, we hear the word "sleep" more clearly than when we heard it in the line before. Maybe that's because "sleep" has the honor of wrapping up the entire poem.

*In any case, this line makes us think of how awesome it will be for our speaker to finally rest his head on his pillow after such a long trek.

Themes

*Isolation

*Choices

*Man and the Natural World

*Isolation

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a lonely poem, for our speaker finds himself far away from any other human being. He kind of digs this aloneness, however, and is glad that no one is there to watch him. We get the feeling that he'd rather be all by his lonesome in the freezing cold than back in the village. Nature helps make things even lonelier, too, for it happens to be freezing cold, snowing, and dark out there.

Quotes & Thoughts on Isolation (lines 3, 5-6, 11-12)

1) His house is in the village though (2) Thought: Why does the owner of the woods

live in town and not near his woods? We've heard of people owning land, but owning woods seems like an entirely different matter. When we hear the word "woods," we think of an untamable, wild expanse. With this second line, our speaker draws a clean line between the village and the woods. They are like oil and water.

2) And miles to go before I sleep. (15-16)

Thought: We've reached the end of the poem, and we still don't know if our speaker has a family or if anyone is waiting up for him at home. The word "I" appears five times throughout the poem, and we get the feeling that our speaker is one individualistic kind of guy.

*Choices The speaker in "Stopping by Woods on a Sn

owy Evening" makes several choices, many of which his dearly beloved horse does not agree with. The biggest choice that he wrestles with is whether to return to the warmth and safety of the village or to stay and watch the woods fill up with snow. Our speaker does seem to have a hard time making his decision. He ultimately decides to return home, but it seems to take all of his willpower.

*Quotes & Thoughts

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep, (13-14)

Thought: our speaker decides to continue on his journey home. It would seem that this is a particularly difficult decision for him, because the lovely and dark woods almost win out over the promises that must be kept.

*Man and the Natural World

We're not going to lie: nature seems pretty darn scary in this poem. Not scary like it's going to throw thunderbolts at our speaker or let hungry tigers lose on him, but scary in that it is mysterious and even rather seductive. Our speaker is almost enticed into staying and watching the woods fill up with snow, but if he stays too long, we've got to believe that he might freeze to death, catch a really bad cold, or forget his way home. Nature is a beautiful siren in this poem, compelling our speaker to hang out in spite of the dangerous consequences.

Quotes & Thoughts

1) Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year. (7-8)

Thought: To us the word "frozen" is not such a pleasant word. It makes us feel, well, cold, and it makes us think of things like frostbite and popsicles. This seems to be the first semi-violent word in the poem, the first word that reminds us of the dangers that lie behind such a beautiful scene.

2) The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake. (11-12)

Thought: What does a sweeping noise sound like? Well, when we say the word "sweep" aloud, we can kind of hear a little wind come out of our mouths. That ssss noise along with the wwww noise creates a little storm. It's quiet out here in the wilderness, and this quiet almost becomes another character, another presence.

*Literary device (technique) Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay Woods The woods in this poem are something to writ

e home about. Our speaker can't get enough of them, telling us that "the woods are lovely, dark and deep" (13), as though he were hypnotized. The woods must be all that and a bag of chips, because our speaker is compelled to stop and stare at them on the freezing, dark winter evening.

There's a mysterious element to these woods as well, and we get the sense that the speaker is not alone, even though he is very much by himself. Whenever we see woods in literature, we almost automatically see them in contrast to civilization. If you've read The Scarlet Letter, think about the woods Hester Prynne frequents.

The Natural World Our speaker is digging the natural worl

d. Picture him hanging out with his horse, between a frozen lake and the edge of the woods, while the snows falls gently all around him. The ideas of the village, of a farmhouse, or of the promises he must keep are not nearly as appetizing to our speaker as the cold beauty of the world around him.

There's something very lulling about the "easy wind and downy flake" (12), and we get the sense that the natural world is pretty compelling and pretty good at convincing our speaker to forget about civilization. Nature is powerful in this poem.

(*Lines 6-8: With these lines, we get a crystal clear image of the snowy woods and frozen lake at night.

*Line 11: We can almost hear the sound of the wind in the alliteration of "sound's the sweep."

*Line 13: While the fact that the woods are "lovely, dark and deep" might not seem visually helpful, this description actually helps us visualize the image of the woods even more clearly. )

Others *Line 2: The "village" can be interpreted as a symb

ol for society and civilization. *Line 5: Horses have thoughts? We knew it all alon

g. The horse is personified in this line. *Line 6: Farmhouses may not be the most hoppin' p

laces in the world, but they do usually involve people. Because of this, the farmhouse that our speaker mentions seems like a symbol for society and civilization.

*Line 10: Giving his harness bells a shake, the horse is personified once more as he asks "if there is some mistake."

*Form and Meter Rubaiyat Stanza, Iambic Tetrameter. You may or may not have noticed that "Stopping by

Woods on a Snowy Evening" has a nice ring to it, almost like a song. There's rhythm and there's reason, and even some rhyming in this poem. Composed of four four-lined stanzas, this poem is a classic example of the Rubaiyat Stanza. Do not be scared by the number of vowels in that word. "Rubaiyat" is a beautiful Persian word for "quatrain," which means a stanza composed of four lines. The Rubaiyat Stanza has a rhyme scheme of AABA, BBCB, CCDC, :DDDD.

*About the title The title sounds to us like it would work nicely

as a title for a painting, and we can easily imagine (even before reading the poem) gazing at a framed oil painting in a carefully lit museum that shows a figure paused in a dark and snowy landscape. The "-ing" ending to the word "stopping" (making it, in fancy grammatical terms, a gerund) gives us the sense of the immediate present, as though we are just now watching our speaker stop to take a gander at the woods.

This "-ing" ending also makes us feel as if things are in motion, and as if the speaker is in the middle of a journey or task.

If we were to award a gold medal to the word in this title with the juiciest meaning, the word "by" would be the lucky winner. When we think of woods, we imagine being in them, surrounded by trees.

However, our speaker is not in the midst of a great forest: he's actually just next to the woods and staring at the trees. Staring at woods strikes us as just a wee bit strange.

We can imagine hanging out with trees, because trees are cool. But our speaker is on the periphery of the woods; he's separate from them. Before we begin the poem, Frost makes us aware of the fact that the speaker is not inside the woods, but is rather beside them.

-the end