Robert Frost Essay, Research Paper

In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” we have a man who stops in the woods to watch the snow fall. The speaker finds these woods to escape from the everyday stresses of life. My own interpretation is that the man finds himself at a critical crossroad in his life and he flees to these woods to reflect on his life.

The woods that Frost illustrates are a representation of heaven. Although the man is turning to God for guidance, he is neither in nor near a church. Even still, he believes his location is irrelevant to God, who ultimately listens no matter what.

In the second stanza, the horse is only a figment of his imagination. This “horse” is, in actuality, the speaker’s own consciousness, a moment that we create something to relive the stress of our deepest emotions. It acts as an internal censor to keep us close to sanity, the value of life, and maybe even God trying to save his life. When he comes “Between the woods and frozen lake,” he finds that he is at a crossroad in life. The speaker ponders what direction to take, whether to live as the moral man that he is, or to take the easy way out by taking his own life. Frost portrays “The darkest evening of the year,” as the speaker comes to the end of his road.

In the third stanza, while the speaker is giving “His harness bells a shake,” he is really contemplating and asking himself if he should go through with the suicide.

The restful imagery of “lovely, dark and, deep” provides a simple, peaceful, and calm feeling that attracts the speaker to suicide. He realizes that he had “promises to keep,” but we can only hope that he decided to fulfill his obligations to God, his family, his friends, and most importantly? to himself. However, we will never know because as the poem comes to a close, there is no ending. Instead, the refrains only present a fade out and the poem is left open-ended. It is for us as readers to wonder if the speaker will create the only peacefulness that he knows or will he choose to remain the man that already exists.