Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening Analysis

Through elaborate and intricate portrayal of nature and landscapes, Frost uses setting to convey the messages of “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. The “yellow wood” of the first line in “The Road Not Taken” strongly suggests an autumnal setting, a season of new beginnings with ever-changing colors in the leaves and forests (Frost, “The Road Not Taken” 1). These themes of a fresh and even unfamiliar, outset, and transitional events, encompass the essence of the poem’s message of being given and choosing between uncertain choices. Frost highlights the aspect of uncertainty and obscurity of the laid out paths in the second stanza, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (8). The term “grassy” implies that it is
The first stanza provides a context of isolation and solitude, an aspect carried out to the end of the poem. Stating that the owner of the wood’s “house is in the village, though;” evidently indicates that the woods that the narrator has ‘stopped by’ is quite far away from the village, a presumably much more populated place, as the owner “will not see me [him or her] stopping here / To watch his woods…” (Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” 2-4). The loneliness and isolation is further emphasized in the second stanza, “My little horse must think it queer / To stop without a farmhouse near” (Frost “Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening” 5-6). Similar to the “yellow woods” (1) of “The Road Not Taken”, Frost implies the season of winter, or even more specifically, most likely December 21st, as it states in the second stanza, “Between the woods and frozen lake / The darkest evening of the year” (7-8). Despite the usual negative connotations associated with isolation and darkness, Frost shines a more positive light on the aforementioned characteristics with words such as “easy” (12) and “downy” (12) to describe the wind and falling snow, presenting a calm and more relaxed tone to the ‘tense’ characteristics of ‘isolation’ and ‘darkness’. Frost goes further to
The narrator of “The Road Not Taken” is not only describing approaching a forked road of different opportunities but is also wistfully reflecting on his or her own dilemma of choosing a path over the other. Not only is the whole poem narrated in the past tense but also from the beginning, the first stanzas hint at regret in the first two lines, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken” 1-2). The narrator attempts to justify his or her choice of choosing the path that he or she took by saying that it had “perhaps the better claim, / Because it was grassy and wanted wear;”, but soon after states that actually both paths “…for that passing there / Had worn them really about the same,” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken” 7-8,10). The last two stanzas, significantly shifts this implied regret into complete dissatisfaction and nostalgic bitterness. The narrator again repeats how in actuality, the paths were both the same, as “both that morning equally lay…” despite his or her earlier comment of how the path he or she took was more of “the better claim”, further emphasizing a tone of dissatisfaction (Frost, “The Road Not Taken 11). It is soon followed by a word of remorse in Line 13, “Oh, I kept the first for another day!”, the exclamation point suggesting that