Stopping By Woods

Newman 1

Stopping By Woods

"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."
Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a sensuous and simplistic poem. This poem advocates cultures of intimacy and integrity. Although some critics believe the poem symbolizes the speaker's wish for death, the speaker may be merely enjoying the solitude and tranquility of the woods.
The setting of Frost's poem is a snow-covered New England landscape during the winter solstice, the "darkest evening of the year." A man stops his horse-drawn sleigh to view the woods around him. He lingers for awhile to "watch" the "woods fill up with snow," before continuing on his way because he has "promises to keep," and "miles to go before" he sleeps.
Some critics interpret the narrator's attraction to the woods as a death wish, as described by Freud (Meyers
106). O...