poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

You know, I wonder what Frost wanted us to do with his poems (besides read them. of course.) I certainly agree that they respond fruitfully to criticism, revealing subtexts and underlying meanings galore. That said, is that what Frost wanted us to do? I'm not sure - remember, we're talking about a man who didn't "read" his poems aloud; he felt he "shared" them. I wonder a bit what Frost would have felt about the body of criticism that's sprung up around him and his work.

I think the poem is about Santa Claus.

And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep
these last lines say it all! this poem is amazing it tells about a simple journey that a person is traveling, but it also means that life is a journey that needs to be done and not to enjoy...

I'm actually doing a report on Robert Frost and with some help from my english teacher(a brilliant man) helped me to realize what different things stood for in the poem.
The darkness of the woods and the cold show that he has no real reason to be there, no reason to be thinking the way that he does, yet he is still there. The horse becomes the voice of reason, confirming that he should not remain in such a cold dark place. Even though he is in a scary place, the snow represents purity, and then clearness of mind, as he sees everything in nature, how natural everything around him is, and that he realizes that suicide is not a natural things, and that it would be easy to stop in this dark place, "these woods are lovely, dark and deep," but he has other things to do, responsibilities, and he knows it is not yet his time.

It would make sense to me at least if he did own the woods himself. If we take that assumption to be true then the first line ending in 'i think i know' might indicate that he doesn't know himself and is lost.

This would then make the suicide reading more signifiant as he has a motif for it, not knowing who he is, a deep sense of confusion?

He then dismisses this idea and continues with his life. ..miles to go before i sleep' may suggest a sense of wearyness but he refuses to give up until the very end.

good poem!

This poem always grabs at my heart everytime I read it. doesen't make much sense but is a wonderful poem

Robert frost is, in my opinion, by a large margin the best poet who ever lived. His deep, thought-provoking sentiments and views of society make others pale by comparison. This poem is one of the most controvercial, hardest to understand, and wonderful poems he has written. I believe that it is about the conflict between pleasure and duty, as stated by Shirley Creed, but there are hundreds of thousands of permutations for meanings and such things possible. The mind of the man who could have written such a work of art blows mine into thousands of starstruck bits.
I pledge allegance to Robert Frost!

Its about a ghost returning and revisiting his past. The woods dark and deep is death. The miles to go before I sleep is the journey the soul is on before it sleeps, or passes on into sleep into the forest dark and deep. Thats how I see it.

Robert Frost was from New England (from the time he was 11 to the time of his death in 1963), and had a great reverence for nature. Many New Englanders, myself included, love the mixture of solitude and reveling in Nature's playground.

Stopping in the woods to enjoy the peace and tranquility that exists is nothing new--it's something we're born to enjoy, though nowadays, so few actually ever get to enjoy it--they're off on hectic schedules which offer little to no solace to the soul.

But like everyone else, he had obligations--to himself, to his social circle, to whatever other offerings the day had planned. Because of this, he realizes that these obligations needed to be tended to, and once again, joy was superseded by such plans.

I don't see a suicide angle, and never knew that theory existed. Frost led a very long, wonderfully peaceful life (to the age of 89) and I don't ever think for a moment that he would have opted for such an ugly ending.

As well I note something else: in his reverence for nature, which is a common theme in a lot of pastoral poetry, he has a tone which in some ways resembles that of William Wordsworth, who devoted a good deal of his time and writing to a theme of nature and of what nature has created.

what i understand in my interpretation of this particular poem by frost (a great one might i add) is that frost makes a contrast between the human inhabited side of life that he knows, as indicated in ‘the village’ and, the eternally existing way of nature that he stops to observe in which surroundings and atmosphere merely exist without the complications such as purpose or meaning to their existence. He, stopping to admire this fact ponders what it might feel like (NO ppl not nescisarily suicide)to stay, in these woods just for the pleasure of living a complication free existance free of duty or expectations. But he comes to the realisation that he has many expecations which hold him back from this sweet sweet thought of paridise and that he is better off to return to his pony and once again rejoin the jolly old land of reality. (doesn't anyone understand that frost was not a crazy nor suicidal man, like many poets.)