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-: ASSIGNMENT :-
Name :- Jagruti R Vasani
Sem :- 3
Roll No :- 15
Enrollment No :- 2069108420180054
Paper 10 :- American Literature
Topic :- Critical and Philosophical views:-
“Stopping by Woods” by Robert Frost
Email Id :- jagrutivsani17@gmail.com
Submitted To :- Smt S.B. Gardi Department of English
Mahraja krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnaga University
“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.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promise to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go Before I sleep.
“Stopping by woods” is a poem written in 1922 by Robert frost, and published in 1923 in his new Hampshire volume. Imagery, personification, and repetition are prominent in the work. In a letter to Louise Untermeyer , Frost called it “ my best bid for remembrance “. He explores the complex array of emotions one is forced to undergo as he deals with expectations thrust on to him. It’s filled with the theme of nature and vivid imagery that readers of his work have come to love.
The basic conflict in the poem, resolved in the last stanza, is between an attraction toward the woods nd the pull of responsibility outside of the woods and the pull of responsibility outside of the woods. What do woods represent. The speaker is probably a farmer returning home from far away. He is riding his horse. It is getting rather late. He has come to a place where there is very beautiful scenery. He stops the horse and looks around, enjoying. There is a lake on one side and a small forest on the other side he snow is falling like soft cotton (downy).
The lake is almost frozen. It is now very dark. It is quiet, and there is only the sound of the wind on the flakes of snow. Because the traveler stops the horse in an unusual place, where there is no house nearby, the horse shakes its head, in the manner of asking if there is some mistake. Then the traveler conscious that he has a long way to go before he gets home to sleep. “ The wood are lovely, dark and deep”, but he has promises to keep. We do not know whether the promises were made with someone, or they are his own commitments, but anyway he cannot stop there : he must go.
Like the woods it describes, the poem is lovely but entice us with dark depths of interpretation, in this case. It stands alone and beautiful, the account of a man stopping by woods on a snowy evening, but gives us a come-hither look that begs us to load it with a full inventory of possible meanings. We protest, we make apologies, we point to the dangers of reading poetry in this way, but unlike the speaker of the poem, we cannot resist.
The last two lines are the true culprits. They make a strong claim to be the most celebrated instance of repetition in English poetry. The first “And miles to go before I sleep” stays within the boundaries of literaleness set forth by the rest of the poem. We may suspect, as we have up to this point, that the poem implies more than it save outright but we can’t insist on it the poem has gone by so fast, and seemed so straightforward. Then comes the second “And miles to go before I sleep”, like a soft yet penetrating gong: it can be neither ignored nor forgotten. The sound it makes is “Ahhh”. And we must read the verses again and again and offer trenchant remarks and explain the “Ahh” in words far inferior to, the poem. For the last “Miles to go” now seems like life; the last “sleep” now seems like death.
The basic conflict in the poem, resolved in the last stanza, is between an attraction toward the woods and the pull of responsibility outside of the woods. What do woods represent ? Something good ? something bad ? Woods are sometimes a symbol for wildness, madness, the prerational, the looming irrational . But these woods do not seem particularly wild. They are someone’s woods, someone’s woods, someone’s in particular the owner lives in the village. But that owner is in the village on this, the darkest evening of the year so would any sensible person be, that is where the divison seems to lie, between the village and the woods that which is beyond the borders of the village and all it represents. If the woods are not particularly wicked, they still possess the seed of the irrational; and they are, at night dark with all the varied connotations of darkness.
Part of what is irrational about the woods is their attraction. They are restful, seductive, lovely, dark and deep like deep sleep, like oblivion. Snow falls in downy flakes, like a blanket to lie under and be covered by and here is where many readers hear dark undertones to this lyric. To rest too long while snow falls could be to lose one’s way, to lose the path to freeze and die. Does this poem express a death wish considered and then discarded ? Do the woods sing a siren’s song ? To be lulled to sleep could be truly dangerous is allowing oneself to be lulled akin to giving up the struggle of prudence and self preservation ? or does the poem merely describe the temptation to sit and watch beauty while responsibilities are forgotten to succumb to a mood for a while ?
The woods sit on the edge of civilization; one way or another, they draw the speaker away from it and its promises its good sense.
Stopping by Wood on the snowy evening is a simple romantic poem on its surface. It is also a poem with levels of complex allegories. The journey in the poem is an allegory of the life journey and a spiritual journey besides being connotative of other more philosophical issues of life. The poem is simple in language but certain strange clues trigger off deeper meanings. The poem is remarkable in its chain like rhyming scheme and its rhythm, too. The simple looking statements are unusually underscored by the sudden change of tone.
On its literal level, the poem is “romantic” in subject and theme. The speaker is probably returning home and is crossing lovely woods on a pleasing evening. That makes him feel like stopping there and enjoying the beauty and quiet of the place. And the necessity to go ahead makes him regret that he has to go. We miss what we leave. The speaker romanticizes what are passing by both time and pleasure. He is a typical romantic personal who enjoys what the owner of the woods does not. In this sense, the poem is romantic because of the speaker’s love of nature. His feelings are emotive the expression is spontaneous and simple. However the poem can be interpreted symbolically. At one of the symbolic levels, it is an allegory of life. The journey in the poem is symbolically man’s life journey. As in real life as a whole, the speaker can not stop and enjoy what he likes, life goes on. The horse is like time. The speaker is going ahead and his ‘sleep’ may be the end of life.
Certain clues in the poem make us feel that even the life journey is not only of a simple life but the journey of a religious or spiritual life. The speaker is a religious man who has “Promise to keep”. The lovely woods are not only beautiful but also dark. The darkness could be the connotation of ‘confusing’ evils on the way of the religious man. The attractions of the journey are wayside temptation of worldly life. The horse is his conscience or reason. The journey man must not fall a victim of ‘easy’ wimd and comfortable looking downy flakes. Their softness is deceptive, for they are luring, cold, dark and evil. In this sense of the religious allegory or symbolism, the speaker is a kind of everyman on his Christian journey, and he is resolved to go ahead after almost being tempted and stopped by the attractions of worldly pleasures.
At yet another level of possible interpretations, the poem is even more general and philosophical in its allegorical suggestions about life, time and dedication to a goal or vocation, consciousness, and so on. Including the romantic theme, life journey ideas and religious themes these general suggestion can be called ‘philosophical’. The horse is the will power persistent in the subconscious of a man. The journey could be a vocation ,profession like poetry, art, academic, pursuit, personal ambition, a commitment to some ideal or other dedication. We all have promises of all sorts to keep. We have promises towards ourselves and towards others. We are unable to stop but flow with time.
In short , the poem is not only rich in meaning and word game ; it is also rich in music and expression. The word game in the poem is so rich due to the central metaphor of ‘journey’ and ‘having to go’ miles before sleeping, and so it applies beautifully to many kinds of interpretations. The expressions is simple and typically meditative. The music supports the mood and meaning of the poem very well.
THANK YOU.
♣♣♣
-: ASSIGNMENT :-
Name :- Jagruti R Vasani
Sem :- 3
Roll No :- 15
Enrollment No :- 2069108420180054
Paper 10 :- American Literature
Topic :- Critical and Philosophical views:-
“Stopping by Woods” by Robert Frost
Email Id :- jagrutivsani17@gmail.com
Submitted To :- Smt S.B. Gardi Department of English
Mahraja krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnaga University
“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.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promise to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go Before I sleep.
“Stopping by woods” is a poem written in 1922 by Robert frost, and published in 1923 in his new Hampshire volume. Imagery, personification, and repetition are prominent in the work. In a letter to Louise Untermeyer , Frost called it “ my best bid for remembrance “. He explores the complex array of emotions one is forced to undergo as he deals with expectations thrust on to him. It’s filled with the theme of nature and vivid imagery that readers of his work have come to love.
The basic conflict in the poem, resolved in the last stanza, is between an attraction toward the woods nd the pull of responsibility outside of the woods and the pull of responsibility outside of the woods. What do woods represent. The speaker is probably a farmer returning home from far away. He is riding his horse. It is getting rather late. He has come to a place where there is very beautiful scenery. He stops the horse and looks around, enjoying. There is a lake on one side and a small forest on the other side he snow is falling like soft cotton (downy).
The lake is almost frozen. It is now very dark. It is quiet, and there is only the sound of the wind on the flakes of snow. Because the traveler stops the horse in an unusual place, where there is no house nearby, the horse shakes its head, in the manner of asking if there is some mistake. Then the traveler conscious that he has a long way to go before he gets home to sleep. “ The wood are lovely, dark and deep”, but he has promises to keep. We do not know whether the promises were made with someone, or they are his own commitments, but anyway he cannot stop there : he must go.
Like the woods it describes, the poem is lovely but entice us with dark depths of interpretation, in this case. It stands alone and beautiful, the account of a man stopping by woods on a snowy evening, but gives us a come-hither look that begs us to load it with a full inventory of possible meanings. We protest, we make apologies, we point to the dangers of reading poetry in this way, but unlike the speaker of the poem, we cannot resist.
The last two lines are the true culprits. They make a strong claim to be the most celebrated instance of repetition in English poetry. The first “And miles to go before I sleep” stays within the boundaries of literaleness set forth by the rest of the poem. We may suspect, as we have up to this point, that the poem implies more than it save outright but we can’t insist on it the poem has gone by so fast, and seemed so straightforward. Then comes the second “And miles to go before I sleep”, like a soft yet penetrating gong: it can be neither ignored nor forgotten. The sound it makes is “Ahhh”. And we must read the verses again and again and offer trenchant remarks and explain the “Ahh” in words far inferior to, the poem. For the last “Miles to go” now seems like life; the last “sleep” now seems like death.
The basic conflict in the poem, resolved in the last stanza, is between an attraction toward the woods and the pull of responsibility outside of the woods. What do woods represent ? Something good ? something bad ? Woods are sometimes a symbol for wildness, madness, the prerational, the looming irrational . But these woods do not seem particularly wild. They are someone’s woods, someone’s woods, someone’s in particular the owner lives in the village. But that owner is in the village on this, the darkest evening of the year so would any sensible person be, that is where the divison seems to lie, between the village and the woods that which is beyond the borders of the village and all it represents. If the woods are not particularly wicked, they still possess the seed of the irrational; and they are, at night dark with all the varied connotations of darkness.
Part of what is irrational about the woods is their attraction. They are restful, seductive, lovely, dark and deep like deep sleep, like oblivion. Snow falls in downy flakes, like a blanket to lie under and be covered by and here is where many readers hear dark undertones to this lyric. To rest too long while snow falls could be to lose one’s way, to lose the path to freeze and die. Does this poem express a death wish considered and then discarded ? Do the woods sing a siren’s song ? To be lulled to sleep could be truly dangerous is allowing oneself to be lulled akin to giving up the struggle of prudence and self preservation ? or does the poem merely describe the temptation to sit and watch beauty while responsibilities are forgotten to succumb to a mood for a while ?
The woods sit on the edge of civilization; one way or another, they draw the speaker away from it and its promises its good sense.
Stopping by Wood on the snowy evening is a simple romantic poem on its surface. It is also a poem with levels of complex allegories. The journey in the poem is an allegory of the life journey and a spiritual journey besides being connotative of other more philosophical issues of life. The poem is simple in language but certain strange clues trigger off deeper meanings. The poem is remarkable in its chain like rhyming scheme and its rhythm, too. The simple looking statements are unusually underscored by the sudden change of tone.
On its literal level, the poem is “romantic” in subject and theme. The speaker is probably returning home and is crossing lovely woods on a pleasing evening. That makes him feel like stopping there and enjoying the beauty and quiet of the place. And the necessity to go ahead makes him regret that he has to go. We miss what we leave. The speaker romanticizes what are passing by both time and pleasure. He is a typical romantic personal who enjoys what the owner of the woods does not. In this sense, the poem is romantic because of the speaker’s love of nature. His feelings are emotive the expression is spontaneous and simple. However the poem can be interpreted symbolically. At one of the symbolic levels, it is an allegory of life. The journey in the poem is symbolically man’s life journey. As in real life as a whole, the speaker can not stop and enjoy what he likes, life goes on. The horse is like time. The speaker is going ahead and his ‘sleep’ may be the end of life.
Certain clues in the poem make us feel that even the life journey is not only of a simple life but the journey of a religious or spiritual life. The speaker is a religious man who has “Promise to keep”. The lovely woods are not only beautiful but also dark. The darkness could be the connotation of ‘confusing’ evils on the way of the religious man. The attractions of the journey are wayside temptation of worldly life. The horse is his conscience or reason. The journey man must not fall a victim of ‘easy’ wimd and comfortable looking downy flakes. Their softness is deceptive, for they are luring, cold, dark and evil. In this sense of the religious allegory or symbolism, the speaker is a kind of everyman on his Christian journey, and he is resolved to go ahead after almost being tempted and stopped by the attractions of worldly pleasures.
At yet another level of possible interpretations, the poem is even more general and philosophical in its allegorical suggestions about life, time and dedication to a goal or vocation, consciousness, and so on. Including the romantic theme, life journey ideas and religious themes these general suggestion can be called ‘philosophical’. The horse is the will power persistent in the subconscious of a man. The journey could be a vocation ,profession like poetry, art, academic, pursuit, personal ambition, a commitment to some ideal or other dedication. We all have promises of all sorts to keep. We have promises towards ourselves and towards others. We are unable to stop but flow with time.
In short , the poem is not only rich in meaning and word game ; it is also rich in music and expression. The word game in the poem is so rich due to the central metaphor of ‘journey’ and ‘having to go’ miles before sleeping, and so it applies beautifully to many kinds of interpretations. The expressions is simple and typically meditative. The music supports the mood and meaning of the poem very well.
THANK YOU.
♣♣♣
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