The Two Worlds in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening :: Stopping Woods Snowy Evening

The Two Worlds in taenia by Woods fillet by Woods    The visible signal of the poets preoccupation is the recurrent image of dark woods and trees. The world of the woods, a world offering perfect quiet and solitude, exists align by side with the realization that on that point is also another world, a world of mess and social obligations. Both worlds have claims on the poet. He stops by woods on this darkest evening of the year to watch them fill up with snow, and lingers so long that his little horse shakes his harness bells to ask if there is some mistake. The poet is put in mind of the promises he has to keep, of the miles he in time must travel. We are not told, however, that the call of social responsibility proves stronger than the affection of the woods, which are lovely as well as dark and sound the poet and his horse have not moved on at the poems end. The wave-particle duality of the poets obligations both to the woods and to a world of promises--the lat ter filtering like a barely heard echo through the almost hypnotic verbalize induced by the woods and falling snow-is what gives this poem its singular interest.... The artfulness of Stopping by Woods consists in the way the two worlds are ceremonious and balanced. The poet is aware that the woods by which he is stopping belong to psyche in the village they are owned by the world of men. moreover at the same time they are his, the poets woods, too, by virtue of what they spurious to him in terms of emotion and private signification. What appears to be simple is shown to be not really simple, what appears to be innocent not really innocent.... The poet is matter to and lulled by the empty wastes of white and black. The repetition of sleep in the net two lines suggests that he may succumb to the influences that are at work. at that place is no reason to suppose that these influences are benignant. It is, after all, the darkest evening of the year, and the poet is entirely bet ween the woods and frozen lake.