Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

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.

Source: PoetryFoundation.org

Granite State Stories: Robert Frost publishes ‘New Hampshire’

Published: 6/29/2018

The Granite State’s most celebrated poet, Robert Frost, wrote works that evoked the beauty of the New England landscape, using spare language and poignant imagery that emphasized Yankees’ resilience and reverence for traditions but also the bleakness and isolation that characterized rural life in northern New England.

Despite having New Hampshire ancestry, Frost was originally from the American West. After a brief stint at Dartmouth College, he spent nearly a decade working on his grandfather’s farm in Derry, writing many of the poems for which he would later become famous. He eventually bought a farm in Franconia, which became known as The Frost Place.

His agricultural efforts met with little success, but he taught English and American literature at preparatory schools and colleges throughout New England. Over the course of his life, he received four Pulitzer Prizes, the first being for New Hampshire, which included one of his more well-known pieces, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” although that particular piece, ironically, was written when he was in Vermont.

Source: The Concord Monitor