Sad Poets Society № 17

Finding reasons to keep going with Robert Frost

Photo by Douglas Fehr on Unsplash

Welcome to this month’s meeting of the Sad Poets Society. Today, we’ll be discussing “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Let’s get into it.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

BY ROBERT FROST

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.

There are some poems that stick with you, poems you return to again and again over the years. This is one of those poems for me. Like many Americans, I first encountered Robert Frost in 9th grade English class. While I was familiar with “The Road Not Taken” before then, I didn’t know much else from or about this quiet giant of American poetry. We read many of his most famous works, but “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was particularly striking. My teenage self wasn’t entirely sure why I loved this poem so much. I only knew that I did. But in the years that followed, particularly during several severe depressive episodes in college, I clung to these verses with a desperate grip.