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The poet writes, "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" (Frost 275). The narrator has stopped to enjoy the magic of a snowfall on a winter evening. In these few lines, he manages to convey the cold, the natural world around him, his own dependence on the horse and sleigh to get him home to his own house, and his ability to stop for a moment to enjoy the beauty around him.
The only serious tone of the poem comes at the end, when Frost writes, "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" (Frost 275). Frost effectively breaks the spell of the magical woods and acknowledges there is another world waiting for him. This is a world full of commitments and "promises," just as most of us endure every day. However, Frost's narrator has the ability to stop for a moment and enjoy the snowfall, while most readers do not. Thus, the narrator conveys a sense of commitment, but also brings out a bit of envy in the reader. The narrator can enjoy a moment's peace, while many modern people cannot enjoy that luxury.
This is not the only example of Frost's works that pulls the reader in more than one direction at once. Another critic said of his works, "While standing...
Indeed, many of his poems, such as this one, seem quite simple at first glance, but if they are read several times, new and sometimes much more important themes stand out in the reader's mind.
In conclusion, Robert Frost was a truly American poet. His works celebrated the natural world, but much more. They are complex and sometimes complicated, especially if the reader takes the time to read them more than once. He created poems, plays, and prose, and many of his poems are still quoted often today. His work is inspiring to others, introspective, and often much more complicated than it first appears, and that is one of the reasons so many English departments still study and commend his works.
References
Frost, Robert. Collected Poems of Robert Frost. New York: Henry Holt, 1930.
Hamilton, David. "The Echo of Frost's Woods." Roads Not Taken: Rereading Robert Frost. Ed. J. Wilcox and Jonathan N. Barron. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2000. 123-131.
Pritchard, William H. "Frosts Life and Career." University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2000. 8 Dec. 2006. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/life.htm
Wilcox, J., and Jonathan N. Barron, eds. Roads Not Taken: Rereading Robert Frost. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2000.
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