Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” was first published on this day in 1923. If you need to refresh your memory, here’s the poem:
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.
“Birches” is my favorite Frost poem, but this one comes in a close second. I love the tension in this poem and I like that the narrator makes a conscious choice. The last stanza is my favorite, as it probably is most people’s. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep” is a gorgeous line, so soft and unthreatening, so inviting. The meaning of what is going on sneaks up on me every time and the final two lines leave me breathless. It’s hard to believe this poem is 84 years old. It seems to me eternally fresh.
Some interesting trivia about the poem, According to Writer’s Almanac, this was Frost’s favorite of his poems. He wrote the first draft on a mid-June morning after a long night of struggling with the writing of “New Hampshire.” According to Frost, it only took him a few minutes to write “Stopping by the Woods.” He said of its composition, “It was as if I’d had a hallucination.” The poem itself does have a bit of a hallucinatory quality to it, doesn’t it?
Something that may be of interest to you short story writers out there, Bebo is hosting a “nanotale” competition to celebrate the launch of Bebo Authors. Stories must be 1,000 words or less. You have until the 16th (sorry for the short notice) to upload your story to either Bebo, Nanotales, or The Guardian. Stories will be judged by the general public, Alan Yentob, creative director of the BBC, Caroline Michel from William Morris agency, Sarah Crown, literary editor of Guardian Unlimited, Franc Roddam, film director and founder of Ziji Publishing, Joanna Shields, president of Bebo, and Ziv Navoth, author and concept creator of Nanotales. The winning stories will be published next year by Ziji Publishing in a new anthology of Nanotales.
If you are wanting to do some bookish good, consider a donation to the Camel Book Drive. Librarians in Northeast Province in Kenya travel with the camel bookmobile, bringing books to a semi-nomadic people who struggle with drought, famine and chronic poverty. The Camel Book Drive will accept books in English, Swahili, and Somali. If you’d like to send a book but don’t know what to send, they have an Amazon wishlist to help make it easy.
And finally, Arts Council England has an Arts Debate web site that includes articles on the arts and a section where you are asked to weigh in on such important questions as “What do you value about the arts?” and “What principles should guide public funding of the arts today?” Comments range from a sentence to several paragraphs, but it is an interesting look into what people think of art, and a chance for you to have a say too.
I love both of those Frost poems, the one you posted and “Birches” — I’d like to read more Frost sometime, actually, beyond the very well-known ones. I’ve taught a few of his poems many times and know them well, but beyond those, I haven’t read much.
It is one of my very favourite poems about winter, that I first read long before I’d ever seen snow fall. I remember squealing silently when it was in my ‘O’ level examination because I was so familiar with it. Snow by Archibald Lampman is my other winter favourite.
I do love that last stanza too, although I find it intensely melancholy. That ‘miles to go before I sleep’ has a Sysiphean (sp? you know what I mean) quality to it, that aches with existential angst for me.
The camel bookmobile seem like a modern-day version of the pack-horse librarians….
Dorothy, a mass market Frost anthology was the first poetry book I ever bought. I think I was about 16. I still have it, that’s where I got the poem from to post. I can’t say that I remember reading all the poems in the book, but I like to think my younger self enjoyed them
Imani, a picture of you silently squealing makes me smile. Thanks for sharing the Lampman poem. I’ve never read it before. It is lovely and nicely captures the way snowfall both muffles and sharpens sound.
Litlove, I know what you mean
It is intensely melancholy and full of existential angst and I think that’s part of why I like it so much. I’m generally not an angst-type person but the poem really touches a chord.
John, yes, I thought of the pack-horse librarians when I read about the camels. Made me wonder if the camel folks knew about them.
I love “Stopping by the Woods…” It’s one of the few poems I actually managed to memorize when young and I still enjoy going over it in my mind from time to time. A composer friend of mine is busy working with this and other “winter” poems just now, creating a song cycle to be premiered in Tokyo this winter. It snows so seldom here (not at all yet this year) that whatever he comes with is likely to be seen as somewhat exotic.
Now that I think about it,….That camel makes me think of Parnassus On Wheels.
Del, your friend’s project sounds interesting. Please let me know if he records it, I’d like to hear it.
Ah, Husband, I can see the similarity.
I have come to the conclusion that I Suck at poetry, but I Do Love Robert Frost!!!
Danielle, I’m sure you don’t suck at poetry. I think you just need to discover what kind/style of poetry you like and then you’ll be surprised at how good you are at it
Wonderful poem!! thank you for posting that!!
You do such a great job at posting poems Heather that as much as I love poetry I feel like I neglect it too often.
This is one of my favourite poems. It is so deceptively simple. Lovely!