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. |
ToneThe tone of this poem is one that seems sad, but at the end turns to determination. The sadness seems to originate with his fondness of nature, seeming to wish that he was not a part of reality, but more apart of the world in which he is now surrounded by. The sadness contains loneliness as all he has is his horse and the sounds “of easy wind and downy flake”, meaning that the world is empty of sound except for the breeze - the wind and his thoughts. In the last stanza, the poem turns from this sad and lonely poem to one of determination and inspiration. This idea springs from his withdrawal of nature and his understanding that there is more to life than just the nature, that there is just so much more. He is determined to find that greater thing in life and inspired from his journey through the woods to think that there is a lot of life left to live and that it should be lived to the fullest. A reader is not left with a sad or depressing impression, but more of a soft feeling of joy and of understanding.
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