Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening has a very clear literal meaning. However, there are many elements to the poem that can lead the reader to reading it allegorically. The need to look past a poems literal meaning comes from the associations readers make between words and other ideas. The elements which make up a poem can be used as tools to look beyond the literal meaning and on to a deeper meaning.
The literal meaning of Frost’s poem is obvious. A man is traveling through the woods on horseback and stops to admire the woods but realize he has many obligations and a long journey ahead before he can rest for the night. The speaker describes the woods as “lovely, dark, and deep” (13). The poem could be described in the same way. It is very pleasant but could also have a deeper-darker interpretation. You can not help but make the association between words like deep and dark to the idea of death. This his how Frost uses diction to bring out a literal and allegorical way ofreading this poem. Diction was not the only element that made me think about the poem in an allegorical sense.
Our Service Can Write a Custom Essay on Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening!
Frost’s choice of words was my first indication there was more than one purpose to the poem. The last two lines of the poem are, “And miles to go before I sleep” (15-6). The repititin of this line made me feel as if Frost had other intentions than its literal meaning. The last word of the poem is sleep. Coincidently, the last time a man sleeps on his journey through life is in death. This association may not be recognized the first time readingthe poem. But as a reader I could not resist but to read the poem again after reaching the end and hearing the repetition of this final line.
The final line of the poem pulled me as a reader into the poem to look for a deeper-darker interpretation. The reader is almost in