Critiques

2. Robert Frost was born in California in 1874. His father, William Frost, died of tuberculosis when Robert was eleven years old. Frost graduated from high school and went to Darthmouth College for a few months. He worked in a textile mill, taught Latin, and became a farmer. Soon Frost sent some of his poems to “The Atlantic Monthly”. They sent the poems back with a note that said “We regret that The Atlantic has no place for your vigorous verse.” In 1912 Frost took his wife and four children to England. There he published “A Boys Will” and “North Boston”. These books include the poems “Mending Wall”, The Death of the Hired Man”, “Home Burial”, “A Servant to Servants”, and “The Wood-Pile”. Frost’s wife died in 1938 and his children either had mental breakdowns or suicide. Frost suffered from depression but, clung to the desire to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. After his wife’s death, Frost fell in love with his secretary and advisor, Kay Morrison. He read to her one of his finest love poems, “A Witness Tree”. Robert died January 29, 1963. He was considered an unofficial poet laureate of the U.S. His poems created quotes like “I never take my side in a quarrel(fight)” and “I’ never serious except when I’m fooling.”

3. Critiques Donald J. Greiner has said that “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is deceptively simple. “it’s inter locking rhyme scheme have been so lauded that it s now one of the most explicated American Poems.” Herbert R. Coursen Jr. guessed that the speaker is none other than Santa Claus. The “little horse” would represent the reindeer and, the “darkest night of the year” being the winter solstice, a few days before Christmas. Jeffrey Meyers says that three of the fifteen lines have been borrowed from other poems. “He gives his harness bells a shake” is from Scott’s “The Rover” (in Palgrave): “He gave the bridle-reins a shake.” “The woods are lovely, dark and deep” is from Thomas Lovell Beddoes’ ”The Phantom Wooer”: “Our bed is lovely, dark, and sweet.” And the concluding sentence “And miles to go before I sleep” comes from Keats’ “Keen Fitful Gusts”: “And I have miles on foot to fare” Analysis The poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” has a unique rhyming pattern. The first, second, and third stanzas have an A, A, B, A pattern. The last stanza has all four lines rhyming. The mood of the poem is suicide. The woods represent death, and the man is tempted to commit suicide. He changes his mind after thinking of the promises he has to keep.

4. Analysis The poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” has a unique rhyming pattern. The first, second, and third stanzas have an A, A, B, A pattern. The last stanza has all four lines rhyming. The mood of the poem is suicide. The woods represent death, and the man is tempted to commit suicide. He changes his mind after thinking of the promises he has to keep.

5. Works cited www.Enotes.com www.english.illinois.edu Robert Frost: A Biography by Jeffrey Meyers www.ReadPrint.com kirjasto,.sci.fi/rfrost.htm www.ketzle.com/frost/snowyeve.htm

6. Stopping by Woods on a snowy evening Whose woods theses 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 sounds 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.