Stopping by woods on a snowy evening.pptx

1. Stopping By Woods on A Snowy
Evening
- Robert Frost
A spoken tutorial by
Dr. Neelam Mulchandani
and Dr. Kailash Patil

2. About Robert Frost
• Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963)
• The only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for
Poetry
• Robert Frost's most famous poems included “The
Gift Outright,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening,” “Birches,” “Mending Wall,” “The Road Not
Taken,” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”
• Robert Frost's writing style can best be described as
a mix of 19th century tradition combined with 20th
century contemporary technique.
• Frost always wrote in his own style, never imitating
the current trends.

3. Stopping By
Woods on A
Snowy Evening
- Robert Frost

4. Stanza 1
• 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.
• But this initial thought isn't crystal clear, the
speaker only thinks he knows who owns the wood
- the first uncertainty is introduced
• There is a gentle, slightly mysterious atmosphere
created by the second, third and fourth lines, all
suggesting that the owner of the woods lives
elsewhere, is separate and won't see this visual
'trespasser' near the woods.

5. Stanza 2
• 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.
• The second stanza concentrates on the horse's
reaction to the rider stopping.
• Queer is a word that means odd or strange, and
the implication is that this person doesn't
ordinarily stop to admire the view; he only stops
at farmhouses, to visit, to feed and water the
horse?
• It is certainly winter, we know from the snow and
cold, but darkest could just mean that, deep into
the night, dark as ever.

6. Stanza 3
• 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 horse is uncertain, it shakes the bells on the harness,
reminding the rider that this whole business - stopping by
the woods - is a tad disturbing. This isn't what they normally
do.
• They ought to be moving ahead; there's something about
the way this person is fixed on the woods that worries the
horse, apart from the cold and dark.
• There is no logical or direct rational answer given to the
horse, there is just the speaker's observation beautifully
rendered in lines eleven and twelve, where alliteration and
assonance join together in a kind of gentle sound dance.

7. Stanza 4
• 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.
• The final quatrain has the speaker again
reaffirming the peace and haunting beauty of the
snowy woods.
• The speaker, the rider, the contemplative man on
the horse, the would-be suicide, is already
committed to his ongoing life. Loyalties forbid him
to enter the dreamworld, as much as he would
love to chuck it all in and melt into the snowy
scene, he cannot. Ever.