Reading Notes of Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening
Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening is one of Robert Frost's master piece. And it is also my favorite poem. Frost claimed that he wrote it in a single night time sitting; it just came to him. On the surface, the poem describes a scene that a traveller stops his horse in a winter night to enjoy the view of the woods fill up with snow. He is deeply attracted to this lovely and quiet scene, and want to stay longer, but he is woken up by his horse and steps out of fantasy.
Robert Frost is one of finest rural New England's 20th century pastoral poets. He is good at using simple and unadorned language in his poem which make readers easy to follow and be personally on the scene. And the poem absolutely fit this style of language. Frost's poems are also full of naturalistic view, mainly representing natural country landscape. We can easily feel his deep love for the beauty of nature. Stopping by Woods On a Snow Evening is also his representative of naturalism. For example, "wood fill up with snow", "of easy wind downy flake", "the woods are lovely, dark and deep", alll these discription get us a vivid picture of beautiful woods at a snowy night.
From the aspect of writing techniques, Frost is a supporter of traditional patterns of rhythm. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter, the rhyme scheme is AABA,BBCB,CCDC,DDDD, which is called interlocking enclosed rhyme. For example, in the third stanza,"queer", "near", and "year" all rhyme, and "lake" rhymes with "shake", "mistake", and "flake" in the following stanza. This traditional rhythm pattern not only offerrs the beauty of rhythem, but also imply the poet's emotion---"getting tempted by such beautiful view slowly and suddenly being awaken by reality". Frost also use rhetorical devices : alliteration, personification and repetition. "sound and sleep" and "dark and deep" are examples of alliteration; the poet personifies the horse, "My little horse must think it queer. To ask if therre is some mistake"; and the third line is repeated as the fourth line in last stanza. He is also a master of symbolism. In the poem, for example, "the woods" implies the mystery of nature, the temptation in life; village and He( the owner of the woods)symbolize human world and society; "sleep" stands for death.
The poet is trying to tell us the situations of "to be or not to be" about human existence. on the surface, the poem just talks about a traveller is attracted by the beauty of nature, and turn back to right track. However, it truely stresses a central conflict between man's enjoyment of natural beauty and his responsibility in society, and his final option between the temptation in life and the return of society, showing a man's despairing courage to seek out the meaning of life.
Everytime I read this poem, I get different feelings. Sometime, I'm moved by the loneliness of the poet. And another time, I can feel confusion and hardship of life. However, we all move on and search for the true meaning, even though way streched endless ahead. Because all of us have "promise to keep, and miles to go" before we sleep.
Robert Frost is one of finest rural New England's 20th century pastoral poets. He is good at using simple and unadorned language in his poem which make readers easy to follow and be personally on the scene. And the poem absolutely fit this style of language. Frost's poems are also full of naturalistic view, mainly representing natural country landscape. We can easily feel his deep love for the beauty of nature. Stopping by Woods On a Snow Evening is also his representative of naturalism. For example, "wood fill up with snow", "of easy wind downy flake", "the woods are lovely, dark and deep", alll these discription get us a vivid picture of beautiful woods at a snowy night.
From the aspect of writing techniques, Frost is a supporter of traditional patterns of rhythm. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter, the rhyme scheme is AABA,BBCB,CCDC,DDDD, which is called interlocking enclosed rhyme. For example, in the third stanza,"queer", "near", and "year" all rhyme, and "lake" rhymes with "shake", "mistake", and "flake" in the following stanza. This traditional rhythm pattern not only offerrs the beauty of rhythem, but also imply the poet's emotion---"getting tempted by such beautiful view slowly and suddenly being awaken by reality". Frost also use rhetorical devices : alliteration, personification and repetition. "sound and sleep" and "dark and deep" are examples of alliteration; the poet personifies the horse, "My little horse must think it queer. To ask if therre is some mistake"; and the third line is repeated as the fourth line in last stanza. He is also a master of symbolism. In the poem, for example, "the woods" implies the mystery of nature, the temptation in life; village and He( the owner of the woods)symbolize human world and society; "sleep" stands for death.
The poet is trying to tell us the situations of "to be or not to be" about human existence. on the surface, the poem just talks about a traveller is attracted by the beauty of nature, and turn back to right track. However, it truely stresses a central conflict between man's enjoyment of natural beauty and his responsibility in society, and his final option between the temptation in life and the return of society, showing a man's despairing courage to seek out the meaning of life.
Everytime I read this poem, I get different feelings. Sometime, I'm moved by the loneliness of the poet. And another time, I can feel confusion and hardship of life. However, we all move on and search for the true meaning, even though way streched endless ahead. Because all of us have "promise to keep, and miles to go" before we sleep.
