Adithi asked 6 years ago
Give a short summary of the poem Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening by Robert frost.
For a line by line analysis of the poem visit our main article link: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Summary and Analysis. But if you need only a short summary, here we go.
The speaker is travelling on his horse through the lonely woods. This time he stops there to enjoy the beauty of the snow-covered woods. He was assured that the owner of the woods won’t see him, as his house is in the village far from there.
His little horse finds it strange to stop there between the woods and a frozen lake, without a farmhouse near. So he (the horse) gives his harness bells a shake to ask if there has been a mistake. The only other sounds in that tranquil evening were the sounds of the easy wind and the falling snow.
The woods were dark and deep, and our speaker found it ‘lovely’. He wanted to stay there longer, but could not do so. He had promises to keep and a long way to go before sleep. So he goes away.
Our life is like a traveler on a journey. There may be many attractions in our life. They sometimes disturb our life journey but until the final destination we need to go on fulfilling our responsibilities and duties. We should not be overwhelmed by worldly pleasures and attractions, which are not real. We need to move forward until we reach our destination.
The writer of the poem is traveling in the dark through the snow and pauses with his horse near the woods by a neighbor’s house to observe the snow falling around him.
The writer continues to pause near the woods, attracted by the deep, dark silence of his surroundings. He wants to enjoy the beauty of nature in that deep dark night but his duties towards his life forced him to move ahead. He feels compelled to move ahead into the snowy woods, but he ultimately decides to continue his journey.
