Explication

In the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost presents us with the picture of an individual pausing in a journey to observe the woods during an evening snowstorm. When the traveler's horse begins to grow impatient, they reluctantly move on. Beginning with lines stating that the narrator knows the owner of the woods and where he resides, Frost assumes a familiarity with the subject of the first stanza. It also seems …

…dark beauty of the woods, or death. Only the responsibility of unfinished business, and the stubbornness of the human spirit, keep him going. The poem is written in quatrain stanzas, and though there is a musical quality to it, the iambic tetrameter lends it a slightly foreboding tone. The rhyme scheme is A A B A, and is predominantly masculine. The last lines are a rhyming couplet, giving emphasis to the final statement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**