Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost

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 his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep

The very start of the poem, describing the woods, could easily be seen as one big metaphor; the woods symbolise heaven, or heaven’s doorstep. The narrator of this poem could be close to death, sometimes referred to as ‘on heaven’s doorstep’, and has found himself in an unfamiliar place, yet he has a feeling that he knows where he is, which is shown in the first line ‘whose woods these are I think I know’; they are God’s woods. The use of woods as a metaphor for heaven’s doorstep is also very effective because woods themselves are usually used in literature as places of danger and fear, although in this poem the wood is a very calm, almost safe haven that the narrator is resting in for a short while. This is shown in the third and fourth stanzas, with ‘of easy wind and downy flake.’ and ‘The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.’. Death itself is also a very scary subject, often brought upon by danger, yet in this case the man welcomes it, and in the last line refers to it as ‘sleep’.

This is backed up in the second line with ‘his house is in the village though’. The house could symbolise a church, being literally the house of God, which would be found in the village, and not in the middle of the woods. This ties with the idea of the woods being heaven’s doorstep because in that case, heaven’s doorstep would be God’s woods.

The fact that the poem is set in the evening is very interesting. This is because evening is often associated with the ending of things, and therefore could be a metaphor for the ‘evening’ of his life, that his life is drawing to an end.

This all ties in with the end of the poem, with ‘The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.’. The woods being lovely and dark make the reader think that they would be a good place to sleep, another metaphor for death. ‘Deep’ could be the fact that the further or deeper into the woods you go, the further you become from the world not just outside of the woods, but from the world of the living, and you go deeper and deeper into sleep until death comes. The fact that he says ‘But I have promises to keep’ and the repetition of ‘and miles to go before I sleep’, could be symbolic of the responsibilities and promises to other and himself that he has to fulfil before his life is over. The repetition of ‘miles’ suggests that the responsibilities are numerous and big, and that he would go miles and miles (literally and metaphorical for the effort and lengths he will go to to fulfil these promises) suggest that these promises and responsibilities are for loved ones, that he will be there for them and not give up on life and everyone and everything he loves.

Of course, it could be argued that this doesn’t have anything to do with God or death, seeing as it says in line three ‘he will not see me stopping here’, when surely if it was God’s wood or heaven’s doorstep, he would see the man stopping there, as God is supposedly omniscient. Therefore, the sleep could be symbolic of Frost becoming dormant as a writer, and the evening could signify his creativity and career coming to an end, as opposed to his life.