# Robert B. Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" is about... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749 "2013-04-03T18:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/21 "2013-04-03T22:58:32Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > The first draft didn’t include the repeating last line in the last paragraph, but rather delved into something a little more base: > > “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. > But I have promises to keep, > And miles to go before I sleep, > But first I gotta stop to take a leak.” Nub uh! No way Frost would ruin the perfect iambic tetrameter of this poem with a line of pentameter. 🙂 This is pretty much the only poem I know that is in unwavering iambic meter throughout (or close. You can read the first two syllables as a spondee, I suppose) And those constant, lulling iambic lines are perfect in evoking peace and solitude. They’re meditative. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/22 "2013-04-03T23:02:32Z")
In other news, I just realized that I must have subconsciously been thinking of Robert B. Parker when I wrote the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/23 "2013-04-03T23:09:45Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > [humorless pedant] > > There’s no evidence that the incident takes place on the solstice. Except for this line: \*The darkest evening of the year. \* > [@](#): > > And given the default assumption that any Frost poem whose settingis not specified takes place in New England, isn’t it just as likely that it took place anywhere from late September to mid March? > > Honestly, I don’t know how Northerners deal with snow. That stuff looks dangerous. Yes, absolutely in New England. Frost is one of my favorite poets, but being from New England probably biases my judgement. This little gem could have been a haiku. Yes, just stopping to reflect on nature before getting back to “life”. Still, I think a poem is what you make of it, so I wouldn’t dwell too much on the “right” interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/24 "2013-04-04T00:48:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Nub uh! No way Frost would ruin the perfect iambic tetrameter of this poem with a line of pentameter. And a rather nice rhyme scheme, too. Each stanza is AABA, with the B of the stanza serving as the A of the next. If you wanted to fit “leak” into the last stanza, it would thus need to be in the third line, not the fourth. ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/25 "2013-04-04T01:26:46Z")
Didn’t Frost himself deny the suicide angle? I can’t remember where I read that. Not that it matters. The best [poetry teacher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Virgil_Davis) I ever had would say that poets are the least reliable interpreters of their own poetry. It is about finding repose from difficultly by immersion into the sublime. This can include many things, repose from the journey of life itself is of course included, but the poem isn’t exclusively about suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/26 "2013-04-04T01:32:48Z")
Also, the narrator is embarrassed, or at least mildly furtive. _Possibly_ ashamed. Hence the remark about his neighbor not seeing him and the horse thinking it odd to be stopping right now. I think the poem’s literally about this guy who stops to watch the snow when he has things to do. This time I don’t think there’s a mystery as to what it’s about. What’s a little mysterious is why it works. I think it works because of the tensions found in it. They make it hint at a story that we’d like to hear more of. These tensions include: Why doesn’t he want his neighbor to see? (I suggest a theory above but I may be wrong.) Is he going to pay attention to his horse? (Yes seriously. We are invited to sympathize with the horse. It’s asking the same questions we are.) Does he have time for this? Why do I (Frylock the reader, but I can’t be the only one) want him to enjoy the view _and_ get on with his work? What’s this say about me/us? Things like that. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/27 "2013-04-04T01:50:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And a rather nice rhyme scheme, too. Each stanza is AABA, with the B of the stanza serving as the A of the next. If you wanted to fit “leak” into the last stanza, it would thus need to be in the third line, not the fourth. Well, the last line is just AAAA (or, really DDDD) which, along with the repeating final couplet, gives it a sense of, to me at any rate, unendingness. So, you could try to jam “leak” in there, but it would be a near rhyme more in the vein of Seamus Heaney (another one of my favorites) than Robert Frost. I just love the sounds, the rhythms, and the simple imagery and rhymes of this poem. The sounds of the words themselves are so evocative of the scene and mood described therein. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/28 "2013-04-04T01:59:11Z")
I always thought the speaker was aware that most people would think he’s just plain nuts for stopping in the middle of a road when it’s snowing very heavily, in the middle of the night, and that’s why he makes the comment about the neighbor not seeing him. I imagine the horse is thinking something similar: Dude, I am freezing and hungry and miserable - why are we stopping here? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/29 "2013-04-04T02:13:45Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I just love the sounds, the rhythms, and the simple imagery and rhymes of this poem. The sounds of the words themselves are so evocative of the scene and mood described therein. Well put. The words fall softly, like fat snowflakes. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/30 "2013-04-04T02:20:04Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > The first draft didn’t include the repeating last line in the last paragraph, but rather delved into something a little more base: > > “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. > But I have promises to keep, > And miles to go before I sleep, > But first I gotta stop to take a leak.” > > But seriously, it’s about finding a moment to restore your energy before setting to a task, and that the peacefulness of nature is the perfect place to do so (and the muted hush of a wintry woods being about the most perfect example of peacefulness and quiet). > [@pulykamell](#): > > Nub uh! No way Frost would ruin the perfect iambic tetrameter of this poem with a line of pentameter. 🙂 This is pretty much the only poem I know that is in unwavering iambic meter throughout (or close. You can read the first two syllables as a spondee, I suppose) And those constant, lulling iambic lines are perfect in evoking peace and solitude. They’re meditative. If you shorten the last line to, “But first I gotta take a leak,” it scans perfectly. By the way, you can sing the poem to the tune of “O Tannenbaum!” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/31 "2013-04-04T02:23:23Z")
_My little horse must think it queer To stop without an outhouse near. Between the woods and frozen lake I drain a bladderful of beer._ ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/32 "2013-04-04T03:08:00Z")
To pee or not to pee, that is the question. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/33 "2013-04-04T03:45:42Z")
Why hasn’t anyone mentioned that this poem can be sung to “Hernando’s Hideaway”? . . . Well, up to a point anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/34 "2013-04-04T03:55:38Z")
AAAA is just a special case of AABA where A = B. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/35 "2013-04-04T04:06:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > AAAA is just a special case of AABA where A = B. I suppose, but don’t exactly agree. That’s irrelevant, though. The “leak” ending is clearly intended to play the near rhyme and is supposed to be scanned as “AAAA.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/36 "2013-04-04T04:12:20Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > _My little horse must think it queer > To stop without an outhouse near. > Between the woods and frozen lake > I drain a bladderful of beer._ :dubious: We talked about this before the interview and I said no. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/37 "2013-04-04T06:43:32Z")
When I was a kid, I guess I saw part of _Telefon_, a spy film where the trigger phrase used to activate sleeper agents involves the poem. So it mostly makes me think of espionage. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/38 "2013-04-04T10:27:25Z")
I don’t think the suicide interpretation is at odds with the poem, which is ultimately about the tension between “stopping to indulge a momentary selfish urge” and “moving on to deal with one’s responsibilities”. Suicide is merely the most extreme version of that conflict, not the only one, and while we may recognize that it doesn’t mean that Frost was only talking about that one particular thing. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/39 "2013-04-04T15:11:17Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > About 4 pounds. 😃 > > I always thought the poem was about slowing down and taking a little time to appreciate things you see all around you but might not always pay attention to. True, but not for long. That’s what I get from the poem more than anything. The break is nice, but it cannot last. My study breaks always brought it to mind: “This break has been nice, but I have much to do and must go about my business.” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/40 "2013-04-04T15:14:29Z")
FWIW, my High School Lit book came just short of insisting that the narrator is a Country Doctor, used to stopping at farmhouses in the evening or night in order to deliver a baby, on his way to help some other patient in need. It makes sense, but it’s hardly as written in stone as the book’s editor seemed to think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749.md?page=3)