Anonymous asked 8 years ago
What does “The darkest evening of the year” suggest in the poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’? Why the evening is called ‘the darkest’?
As I have said in the explanation, the expression ‘darkest evening’ could suggest several things. May be the narrator-traveller was very depressed due to his long journey or the cold weather. The overall atmosphere might be comparatively gloomy. Otherwise it may also refer to the longest night of the year – the night with the most hours of darkness. In that case, it is 21st or 22nd December, when the winter solstice occurs in the northern hemisphere.
The line means the longest night of the year, that is, the night with the most hours of darkness. This normally happens either on December 21st or 22nd when the sun is at farthest south.The darkest evening of the year could also mean that the speaker is feeling very depressed and therefore he likes to spend some time alone in the woods.