Thoughts on a Snowy Evening

“Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost has always been one of my favorite poems. Whenever I have a long night of studying ahead of me, I have always told myself wryly, “only miles to go before I sleep.” Despite my joking manner sometimes, I also genuinely love this poem. I love the forest scene, with its quiet snow, a cold breeze brushing by, a horse’s soft snort. It follows the theme of solitude in nature that we have been contemplating in class, and while the poem has hints of loneliness, I more strongly get a sense of peace from it. I also find its descriptive imagery aesthetically pleasing; I can easily imagine the scene as if it were real. The traveler has endured a tiring journey, but in the moment that he stops to look around, I feel a sense of peace as he silently observes the forest. I imagine I am the traveler on my horse, feeling the girth of the horse between my sore legs, the simultaneous warmth in my core from activity and the cold frost on my extremities. I feel the cold wind fill my lungs in a deep breath and reinvigorate me, pulling me to see more clearly in the quiet of the dark night than I had in the grueling day. The moment of observance and reflection tunes me in to the world’s existence as I look throughout the distance. Everybody knows what it is to have had a taxing day, a day of hard travel, and to just want to lie down comfortably, to be done, to rest. But like the traveler, we are not done. We have so much more to do. With each step forward we get closer, but we cannot skip any of them. But when we pause for a moment of stillness, and simply look out at the silent night, we can almost feel the very earth’s steady breaths of sleep. Even though of course we are not alone in the night and there are countless creatures and beings active as well, we feel as though it is just us and the world. To me, this moment in the poem displays an intimacy between our ‘living’ and nature that can best be found when we do feel so tired and beaten down.

When I learned that this poem is often read at funerals, I was surprised. I have (blessedly) not been to many funerals yet, but I was surprised to learn that a poem I personally have always associated with going on, on, on is read at the close of someone’s life. Perhaps that is the very reason it is read. I also now see the clear imagery of death throughout the poem, like the silence, the cold, the darkness. It puts a somber, ghostly vision on death’s occurrence. In a way this directly contradicts the sentiments I began with, but I also think both narratives occur simultaneously. Even as the signs of death surround him, the traveler knows another person is near. The woods belong to this person, but they do not know the traveler is passing through. The two are going on, with one of them being the only person in the whole world who knows of their proximity. The eeriness of this experience becomes sweet. The two pass by each other without necessarily knowing, but this does not change the fact that they are near. Even in ignorance they have shared domains. To me this provides a hopeful idea of death in which we all remain, just in different realms. Perhaps that is what the intent of reading the poem at funerals is, but our discussion in class nevertheless gave me a new experience with the poem that I appreciated.