Assumption @ 0

Since around the seventh grade, I’ve had a love for poetry. The genres of poetry are endless, but I’ve always been drawn to the type to use descriptive language and vivid imagery. A good poet can use black and white text to form a full color landscape inside the reader’s mind. When a poem is truly heartfelt it will share the author’s deepest fears, passions, insecurities, and ideals.

A piece of writing that really struck me as heartfelt and revealing was “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. The poem is cryptic and can interpreted in many different way depending on the reader's own experiences. My interpretation of the poem is about the allure of death. The narrator is debating whether or not he should venture into the dark woods. He eventually decided that he has too many responsibilities to give in to the temptation of leaving this world behind. If you take the poem at face value, the woods, the horse, and the snow only serve as a visual prop. Delve deeper into the words and a darker elegance is revealed. In my opinion the woods are a symbol of the comfort of darkness and death. It’s warm, soft, and sometimes the temptation is too strong to resist. The horse is a force that reminds him of his societal obligations. It could represent his parents, wife, children, job, or anything else that is dependent on his responsibility. That’s the beauty of an author like Robert Frost. He can write a simplistic poem that is beautiful on the surface and appealing to the ears, but contain a very profound meaning.

The darker aspect of the poem only exists to people who choose to see it. People can dig several different meanings out of the poem that are completely dependent on the reader’s experience. I have an appreciation for the darker things so I noticed the theme immediately. Besides “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” the only other poems I’ve read by Frost are “The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Nothing Gold Can Stay”. I don’t know much about Frost or his other works but considering how much I enjoyed those three poems, I’m sure I’ll fall in love with anything else he writes. I would like to learn about his personal life to gain insight into the mindset behind his poems. Based on what’s known about his life, was “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” really about the allure of death? What was the event that inspired “The Road Not Taken”? Why does he claim to prefer fire in “Fire and Ice”? I don’t know if my questions will be answered, and if they are I fear it may ruin the meaning of his works. Maybe instead I can research about the Literary Movement at the time he was most active or influential. I could also research about the literary works that influenced Frost’s writing, and the writers Frost inspired himself.