# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/81 "2013-04-11T19:09:42Z")
Robert Frost reading his poem: > **[Robert Frost | Poetry Everywhere | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/frost.html)** > > Watch video of Robert Frost reading his poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/82 "2013-04-11T20:30:14Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So it’s a little horse with harness bells, and there’s snow, and a busy man with promises to keep and no time to play has stuff to do miles away; he knows where a particular homeowner is at that moment – is that guy sleeping or awake? – and it’s the darkest evening, something _Solstice,_ something _Christmas Eve_… For more clues, consult Robert’s brother Jack. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/83 "2013-04-11T20:34:48Z")
You’re all way off base about this poem. It’s a metaphor for modern urban living. The wintry dark is code for the isolation and alienation of society in a modern, crowded city. The “narrator” is a street-walker, freezing literally and metaphorical as disinterested consumers of greater means take advantage of her. The horse, symbolically, is her pimp. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/84 "2013-04-11T22:00:05Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > You’re all way off base about this poem. It’s a metaphor for modern urban living. The wintry dark is code for the isolation and alienation of society in a modern, crowded city. The “narrator” is a street-walker, freezing literally and metaphorical as disinterested consumers of greater means take advantage of her. The horse, symbolically, is her pimp. And how about the obvious allusion to Queer Theory in the horse must think it queer to stop without a farmhouse near? In what sense is the horse coming to a radical reconceptualization of sex roles with his/her “queer” thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/85 "2013-04-11T22:04:25Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > And how about the obvious allusion to Queer Theory in the horse must think it queer to stop without a farmhouse near? In what sense is the horse coming to a radical reconceptualization of sex roles with his/her “queer” thoughts? I am now certain that the streetwalker is, in fact, transgendered. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/86 "2013-04-12T01:27:04Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Why hasn’t anyone mentioned that this poem can be sung to “Hernando’s Hideaway”? > > . . . Well, up to a point anyway. Also it fits _When The Saints go Marching In._ ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/87 "2013-04-12T02:18:16Z")
Can they be sung to “The Yellow Rose of Texas”? No they can’t. But . . . another esteemed American poet’s poems can . . . ::rolleyes: ---
**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 12, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749/88 "2013-04-12T04:05:57Z")
> [@Enuma\_Elish](#): > > Robert Frost reading his poem: > > [Retired Site | PBS](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/frost.html) > > Good stuff. Thanks for that link. I’ve always wondered about how Robert Frost imagined those first two syllables being read. Whether a strong spondee to mark the beginning of the poem before it lulls us into an iambic trance, or whether it was iambic all the way from the first. It seems to me that he did imagine those first two syllables as stressed. A minor point, but something I’ve been curious about (and my first post in this thread reflects my uncertainty about this.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-b-frosts-stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-is-about/654749.md?page=4)