Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening | Four Levels

Four levels for "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening". "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" was written by Robert Lee Frost. Robert Lee Frost was born on 26 March, 1874A.D. He died on 29 January, 1963A.D. He was an American poet but his work was initially published in England before America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. He was one of the most popular and critically respected American poets of the twentieth century. Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution." He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetical work.

1. Literal Comprehension: The poem is written by Robert Frost. The speaker is returning home at dust in his own - horse sleigh. He stops to enjoy the peace and solitude of the occasion. The snow is falling softly. The woods are attractive. There is no other human to break the silence. But the horse finds no reason for stopping. It is growing dark. There is no house in sight and miles stretch before them. Reflecting on his horse's impatience, the speaker agrees that he should move on to keep the commitments he has made and only then, he can sleep.

2. Interpretation: In this poem, the poet feels the sense of death and life. Dark, evening, solitary ( एकान्त ) place, far from village or society give the sense of death. The poem tells us that we should do our work and journey to go miles. Similarly, the poem also imparts us that although beauty and peace of the world and our personal burdens may interrupt us from fulfilling our duty, we should move on to fulfill our promises and responsibilities to humanity before we die. In other words, it can be thought of as a statement of man's everlasting responsibility. A man should walk through the dark and nothingness, but he/she should not be attracted towards temptation.

3. Critical Thinking: This poem is a symbolic poem. Here the forest, snow, etc symbolize the hardship of life. And, the horse is the time and bell is the signal of death. He has to go miles before sleep means he has many responsibilities and duties in life to do before he dies. This poem is very beautiful one. We can notice the rhyming pattern to mark it's beauty. Every third line of each stanza rhymes with other three lines of the following stanzas. In the last stanza, the third line has the same rhyming pattern, which suggests that there will be no new stanza. It shows that the simple words make a beautiful poem. It as a symbolic poem compares our life with the events of that evening. Like in our life there are problems, hardships but we are compelled to go ahead without stopping. Here the owner is the god because all things in the earth are created by god and he is the owner of these things but he is unseen and far from here. We have many things to complete before our death.

4. Assimilation: Generally, life and death poems by romantic poets are definitely interesting and beautifully composed. The analogy between life and the worldly things is very much lifelike. This poem reminds us that our life is very short but we have to do many things before our death. This world of god is very beautiful and we can enjoy a lot because he does nothing to us; he has left for us. Like him, I also get a lot of inspiration ( प्रोत्साहान ) from this poem. When I feel sad and unable to do anything I read this poem. This poem gives me a lesson of human life and responsibility. It makes us aware about our life and its length as well as our duties to be done before death. Like the poet, I am very much conscious about my life, duties and death.