Robert Frost’s midwinter scene is memorable for its childlike simplicity and charm, but there is a hint of sad mystery in the traveller’s need to pursue some unknown purpose rather than linger in the bucolic setting.
There’s no dark undertone in the little companion poem – a favourite of mine!
STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
Loading article content
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.
DUST OF SNOW
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
~
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.