Chapter 5 Modernism (3)

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Chapter 5Modernism (3)

• Robert Frost

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Assignment

• What are the features of Robert Frost
• What are the form and meter of Stopping by Woods
  on a Snowy Evening?
• What are the themes of Stopping by Woods on a
  Snowy Evening? Find lines from the poem to
  support the themes and statel the thoughts
  expressed by the lines.
• Answer the four questions on page 196 from The
  Selected Readings.
  
  
  
  
  

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Outline

• Brief introduction
• Life (omitted)
• His literary ideas
• Experiencing and appreciating Stopping by Woods
  on a Snowy Evening

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• Brief introduction
• Occupation Poet, playwright
• Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 January 29,
  1963) was an American poet. He is highly regarded
  for his realistic depictions of rural life and
  his command of American colloquial speech. His
  work frequently employed themes from the early
  1900s rural life in New England, using the
  setting to examine complex social and
  philosophical themes.

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• A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was
  honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving
  four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. In a sense,
  Frost stands at the crossroads of
  nineteenth-century American poetry and modernism,
  for in his verse may be found the culmination of
  many nineteenth-century tendencies and traditions
  as well as parallels to the works of his
  twentieth-century contemporaries.

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• His literary ideas
• He maintained that a poem is "never a put-up
  job.... It begins as a lump in the throat, a
  sense of wrong, homesickness and loneliness. It
  is never a thought to begin with. It is at its
  best when it is a tantalizing vagueness.
• He holds to restore to literature the "sentence
  sounds that underlie the words," the "vocal
  gesture" that enhances meaning.

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• Frost is aware of the distances between one man
  and another, and also always aware of the
  distinction, the ultimate separateness, of nature
  and man.
• Frost focuses on those moments when the seen and
  the unseen, the tangible and the spiritual
  intersect.
• He never completely abandoned conventional
  metrical forms for free verse .

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• He has the idea of order, of form of the past
  which should not be altered by the present as
  much as the present is directed by the past.
• He was more abstract, conceptual awareness of
  language and stressed a fascination with the
  meaning of meaning. In between these extremes of
  the practical and the abstract, he paid attention
  to the act of creativity, methods of composition,
  the relation of poet to reader, the nature of
  originality.

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• He tells that a poem must reach the eye, the
  ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind.
  It is the most important of all to reach the
  heart of the reader.

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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

• Introduction
• Summary
• Themes
• Literary device (technique)

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• Introduction
• When you read the title, maybe you think of a
  Chinese poem,
• Robert Frost wrote "Stopping by Woods on a
  Snowy Evening" in 1922, two years before winning
  the first of his four Pulitzer Prizes. The poem
  tells the story of a man traveling through some
  snowy woods on the darkest evening of the year,
  and he's pretty much in love with what he sees
  around him. He's on his way back to town, but he
  can't quite tear himself away from the lovely and
  dark woods.

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• People love to talk about what this poem
  means. Some argue that it is simply a description
  of a man appreciating nature. Others would tell
  that there is some heavy metaphor action going
  down, and that the poem is about death. And there
  are those who take it a step further and say that
  this poem addresses suicide. Nature-lovers see it
  as a piece that trumpets nature and that scorns
  civilization. You probably have your own idea of
  what this poem means.

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• Robert Frost is a beloved American poet, and
  many people associate him with nature and with
  the New England landscape, because, well, he
  liked to write about nature and the New England
  landscape. He was born in San Francisco (land of
  the sourdough), but spent most of his years in
  snowy places like Massachusetts and New Hampshire
  (land of the maple syrup).

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• Frost is known for creating simple poems that
  can be interpreted on many different levels. He
  also loved to inject everyday, colloquial speech
  into his poems. He was big on sounds, often
  talking about how the sounds of words carry more
  meaning than the words themselves.

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• (Here is what Frost says
• "What we do get in life and miss so often in
  literature is the sentence sounds that underlie
  the words. Words themselves do not convey
  meaning, and to . . . prove this, . . . let us
  take the example of two people who are talking on
  the other side of a closed door, whose voices can
  be heard but whose words cannot be distinguished.

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• Even though the words do not carry, the sound
  of them does, and the listener can catch the
  meaning of the conversation. . . . To me a
  sentence is not interesting merely in conveying a
  meaning of words. It must do something more it
  must convey a meaning by sound.")
• So, if we follow Mr. Frost's advice, we
  shouldn't be so concerned with what this poem
  means as concerned with how it means. Let's warm
  up our vocal chords and perk up our ears.

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• Summary
• Brief Summary
• Line-By-Line understanding

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• Brief Summary
• Our speaker is in the woods, but he's
  trespassing. He first wonders who owns these
  woods. In the same breath, he tells us that he
  thinks he does know who owns them. The lucky
  landowner lives in a house in the village. So,
  our speaker won't get into trouble for
  trespassing, because there's no one to catch him
  trespassing.

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• Our speaker has a horse, and this horse is
  little. Our speaker psycho-analyzes his little
  horse and supposes that the little horse must
  think it's pretty strange for them to be stopping
  in the middle of nowhere, with no one in sight,
  with not even a farmhouse close by, and
  absolutely no sign of hay. The speaker and his
  little horse are chilling (pun intended) between
  the woods and a frozen lake. Ice skating? No.
  Also, it

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• happens to be the darkest evening of the year.
• Little Horse is starting to really lose it.
  Fortunately, he has some harness bells on his
  back, and he gives them a little shake in order
  to get his master's attention. The only other
  sounds are of a slight wind and of falling snow.
  It's quiet.

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• Our speaker admits to having a hankering for
  the dark woods, but he tells us he's got things
  to do, people to see and places to go. He's got a
  long way to go before he can rest his head on his
  little pillow, so he had better get going.

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• Line-By-Line understanding
• Stanza I (Lines 1-4)
• Line 1
• Whose woods these are I think I know.
• Our speaker is not confident. This line begins
  as a question,( and as we're totally ready to get
  on board the question train,) but then, halfway
  through the line, he switches it up.

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• He wonders initially who owns "these woods."
  The word these make us realize that our speaker
  is actually near the woods in question.
• Our speaker then tells us he thinks he knows
  who owns these woods. Notice how he doesn't say
  he knows who owns these woods he says he thinks
  he knows.
• Why doesn't our speaker say, "I think I know
  whose woods these are"? What would be lost or
  gained if the poem began with that rewritten
  line?

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• Line 2
• His house is in the village though
• The speaker thinks he knows the owner of
  woods, and this owner lives in a house in the
  village.( Civilization, sweet, sweet
  civilization! )
• This line tells us that there is a village
  around here somewhere. The word "village" reminds
  us of thatched roofs,

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• smoke curling out of little chimneys, and of a
  few stores and homes clustered around a single
  main street in other words, a village is not the
  most hopping place in the world.
• However, our speaker is relieved that the
  owner of the woods is in the village now he
  doesn't have to worry about getting caught
  trespassing on someone else's property.

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• Line 3
• He will not see me stopping here
• Why will not used here? This woods-owner
  guy must be pretty strict if our speaker is seen
  taking a breather on his property.
• The speaker is almost trying to calm himself
  down and reassure himself that the owner "will
  not see me stopping here,"

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• as though he believes that saying so makes it
  true. It's similar to the magical phrase, "If I
  can't see them, they can't see me," uttered by
  Haley Joel Osment in the movie Sixth Sense.
• This line also tells us that the speaker has
  stopped, that he's hanging out at the moment.

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• Line 4
• To watch his woods fill up with snow.
• He's hardcore trespassing so that he canwatch
  the snow fall?
• Yes, he has stopped in order to take a gander
  at snow falling on cedars.

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• Stanza II (Lines 5-8)
• Line 5
• My little horse must think it queer
• This tells that the speaker is not alone! He
  has a horse, and this horse is little. Maybe a
  pony.

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• The speaker and his little horse probably
  spend a lot of time together, because our speaker
  is totally able to read the little horse's mind.
• He imagines that his horse is thinking that
  things are a little strange now.

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• Line 6
• To stop without a farmhouse near
• The speaker continues to read his horse's
  mind, and imagines the horse is thinking
  something, perhaps, along the lines of, ("Whoa,
  why are we stopping here? We're in the middle of
  nowhere Ville. Where's my dinner? I don't know
  about you, but I'm cold. There isn't even a
  farmhouse close by what's going on?)"

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• The fact that our speaker even attempts to
  figure out what his horse is thinking shows that
  he's a caring kind of guy, and that he's aware
  that stopping in the middle of some snowy woods
  is kind of a random thing to do.

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• Line 7
• Between the woods and frozen lake
• Now we get on just where, exactly, the speaker
  and his horse have stopped they are currently
  hanging out between the woods and the "frozen
  lake," so they must be on a little patch of snowy
  shore line with dark trees to one side and a
  glossy, ice-covered lake to the other.

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• It must be really cold if the lake is frozen,
  and we also are kind of intrigued by the fact
  that the speaker is not riding through the woods,
  but is right beside the woods.

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• Line 8
• The darkest evening of the year.
• Not only is it snowy and wintry, but it's also
  approaching nighttime too.
• Why is this speaker dilly-dallying when the
  light is dying and the snow is falling? A lot of
  people in his place would want to scurry home as
  fast as is humanly possible.

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• "The darkest evening of the year" makes us
  think of the winter solstice, which occurs in
  late December (in the northern hemisphere) each
  year and marks the moment at which the sun is at
  its farthest possible distance from the observer.
  
• Whatever the case may be, it's dark out and
  it's getting darker by the minute. We don't think
  that the speaker is the kind of guy to pack
  flashlights.

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• Stanza III (Lines 9-12)
• Line 9
• He gives his harness bells a shake
• Even though the speaker can read his little
  horse's mind, the horse can't talk back. So, the
  next best option is to shake his booty. And by
  shaking his booty, we mean that he shakes his
  harness a little. There are little bells attached
  to his harness, which give a nice little jingle.

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• Line 10
• To ask if there is some mistake.
• Again with the mind reading. Our speaker knows
  his horse is shaking his bells in order to "ask"
  his master if something is awry, is there's a
  problem.
• It's kind of like the horse is saying, ("Hey,
  is everything OK? We've been standing here
  staring at nothing for a little while, and I just
  wanted to make sure you didn't need me to keep on
  trucking'. I'm cool with the standing still
  thing, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't
  misinterpreting you.")

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• Line 11
• The only other sound's the sweep
• Beyond the harness bells' shaking, the only
  other sound that the speaker can hear is the
  "sweep."
• The word "sweep" makes us think of the sound
  brooms make when they sweep dust into a dustpan.
• At this point, we realize that the speaker is
  taking inventory of all of the sounds around him.
  He's interested in sounds.

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• Line 12
• Of easy wind and downy flake.
• The sweeping noise comes from the slight wind
  and the softly falling snow.
• Have you ever listened to snow falling? It's
  very, very quiet. There's just a gentle whirr.
  Everything is very, very still.

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• Stanza IV (Lines 13-16)
• Line 13
• The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
• Our speaker finally admits to liking the woods.
  We knew it all along. He's entranced by the
  darkness and deepness of the woods, and he thinks
  they are lovely.

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• Dark and deep woods are awesome in our book,
  but they also make us feel slightly anxious.
  There's something mysterious about the maze-like
  nature of woods and forests.
• The point, though, is that our speaker digs
  these woods.

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• Line 14
• But I have promises to keep,
• Our speaker begins this line with the word
  "but." The word "but" makes us think that the
  speaker is contemplating staying in these woods
  rather than returning to the village to fulfill
  the promises he's made.

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• These promises may be things like, "I'll be
  home for dinner, mom," or they may be things
  like, "Let's get married," or "I will take care
  of you."
• Regardless of whether these are big promises
  or little promises, our speaker flirts
  momentarily with the idea of breaking them,
  before deciding against it.

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• Line 15
• And miles to go before I sleep,
• Our speaker really is in the middle of
  nowhere, because he's still got a few miles to go
  before he can rest his head on his pillow. He
  better roll out soon.
• But we feel like we are well acquainted with
  that feeling of being so far away from where you
  need to be that it almost seems easier to just
  give up and hang out.

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• Line 16
• And miles to go before I sleep.
• OK, so our speaker must really be far from
  home, because he feels the need to repeat the
  fact that he's got miles to go. (Miles is too
  far for him to go. Three layers of meaning here
  he has to keep his promise and go away form the
  woods he is tired, and it is snowing and dark
  without a farmhouse to stay in, miles is a long
  way to go he likes this place, he does not want
  to leave, but have to.)( answer to question 4 on
  p196)

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• However, when he says the line a second time,
  we hear the word "sleep" more clearly than when
  we heard it in the line before. Maybe that's
  because "sleep" has the honor of wrapping up the
  entire poem.
• In any case, this line makes us think of how
  awesome it will be for our speaker to finally
  rest his head on his pillow after such a long
  trek.

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• Themes
• Isolation
• Choices
• Man and the Natural World

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• Isolation
• "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a
  lonely poem, for our speaker finds himself far
  away from any other human being. He kind of digs
  this aloneness, however, and is glad that no one
  is there to watch him. We get the feeling that
  he'd rather be all by his lonesome in the
  freezing cold than back in the village. Nature
  helps make things even lonelier, too, for it
  happens to be freezing cold, snowing, and dark
  out there.

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• Quotes Thoughts on Isolation (lines 3, 5-6,
  11-12)
• 1) His house is in the village though (2)
• Thought Why does the owner of the woods live
  in town and not near his woods? We've heard of
  people owning land, but owning woods seems like
  an entirely different matter. When we hear the
  word "woods," we think of an untamable, wild
  expanse. With this second line, our speaker draws
  a clean line between the village and the woods.
  They are like oil and water.

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• 2) And miles to go before I sleep. (15-16)
• Thought We've reached the end of the poem, and
  we still don't know if our speaker has a family
  or if anyone is waiting up for him at home. The
  word "I" appears five times throughout the poem,
  and we get the feeling that our speaker is one
  individualistic kind of guy.

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• Choices
• The speaker in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
  Evening" makes several choices, many of which his
  dearly beloved horse does not agree with. The
  biggest choice that he wrestles with is whether
  to return to the warmth and safety of the village
  or to stay and watch the woods fill up with snow.
  Our speaker does seem to have a hard time making
  his decision. He ultimately decides to return
  home, but it seems to take all of his willpower.

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• Quotes Thoughts
• The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
• But I have promises to keep, (13-14)
• Thought our speaker decides to continue on
  his journey home. It would seem that this is a
  particularly difficult decision for him, because
  the lovely and dark woods almost win out over the
  promises that must be kept.

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• Man and the Natural World
• We're not going to lie nature seems pretty
  darn scary in this poem. Not scary like it's
  going to throw thunderbolts at our speaker or let
  hungry tigers lose on him, but scary in that it
  is mysterious and even rather seductive. Our
  speaker is almost enticed into staying and
  watching the woods fill up with snow, but if he
  stays too long, we've got to believe that he
  might freeze to death, catch a really bad cold,
  or forget his way home. Nature is a beautiful
  siren in this poem, compelling our speaker to
  hang out in spite of the dangerous consequences.

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• Quotes Thoughts
• 1) Between the woods and frozen lake
• The darkest evening of the year. (7-8)
• Thought To us the word "frozen" is not such a
  pleasant word. It makes us feel, well, cold, and
  it makes us think of things like frostbite and
  popsicles. This seems to be the first
  semi-violent word in the poem, the first word
  that reminds us of the dangers that lie behind
  such a beautiful scene.

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• 2) The only other sound's the sweep
• Of easy wind and downy flake. (11-12)
• Thought What does a sweeping noise sound like?
  Well, when we say the word "sweep" aloud, we can
  kind of hear a little wind come out of our
  mouths. That ssss noise along with the wwww noise
  creates a little storm. It's quiet out here in
  the wilderness, and this quiet almost becomes
  another character, another presence.

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• Literary device (technique)
• Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
• Woods
• The woods in this poem are something to write
  home about. Our speaker can't get enough of them,
  telling us that "the woods are lovely, dark and
  deep" (13), as though he were hypnotized. The
  woods must be all that and a bag of chips,
  because our speaker is compelled to stop and
  stare at them on the freezing, dark winter
  evening.

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• There's a mysterious element to these woods as
  well, and we get the sense that the speaker is
  not alone, even though he is very much by
  himself. Whenever we see woods in literature, we
  almost automatically see them in contrast to
  civilization. If you've read The Scarlet Letter,
  think about the woods Hester Prynne frequents.

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• The Natural World
• Our speaker is digging the natural world.
  Picture him hanging out with his horse, between a
  frozen lake and the edge of the woods, while the
  snows falls gently all around him. The ideas of
  the village, of a farmhouse, or of the promises
  he must keep are not nearly as appetizing to our
  speaker as the cold beauty of the world around
  him.

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• There's something very lulling about the "easy
  wind and downy flake" (12), and we get the sense
  that the natural world is pretty compelling and
  pretty good at convincing our speaker to forget
  about civilization. Nature is powerful in this
  poem.
• (Lines 6-8 With these lines, we get a crystal
  clear image of the snowy woods and frozen lake at
  night.

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• Line 11 We can almost hear the sound of the
  wind in the alliteration of "sound's the sweep."
• Line 13 While the fact that the woods are
  "lovely, dark and deep" might not seem visually
  helpful, this description actually helps us
  visualize the image of the woods even more
  clearly. )

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• Others
• Line 2 The "village" can be interpreted as a
  symbol for society and civilization.
• Line 5 Horses have thoughts? We knew it all
  along. The horse is personified in this line.
• Line 6 Farmhouses may not be the most
  hoppin' places in the world, but they do usually
  involve people. Because of this, the farmhouse
  that our speaker mentions seems like a symbol for
  society and civilization.
• Line 10 Giving his harness bells a shake,
  the horse is personified once more as he asks "if
  there is some mistake."

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• Form and Meter
• Rubaiyat Stanza, Iambic Tetrameter.
• You may or may not have noticed that
  "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" has a nice
  ring to it, almost like a song. There's rhythm
  and there's reason, and even some rhyming in this
  poem. Composed of four four-lined stanzas, this
  poem is a classic example of the Rubaiyat Stanza.
  Do not be scared by the number of vowels in that
  word. "Rubaiyat" is a beautiful Persian word for
  "quatrain," which means a stanza composed of four
  lines. The Rubaiyat Stanza has a rhyme scheme of
  AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDDD.

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• About the title
• The title sounds to us like it would work
  nicely as a title for a painting, and we can
  easily imagine (even before reading the poem)
  gazing at a framed oil painting in a carefully
  lit museum that shows a figure paused in a dark
  and snowy landscape. The "-ing" ending to the
  word "stopping" (making it, in fancy grammatical
  terms, a gerund) gives us the sense of the
  immediate present, as though we are just now
  watching our speaker stop to take a gander at the
  woods.

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• This "-ing" ending also makes us feel as if
  things are in motion, and as if the speaker is in
  the middle of a journey or task.
• If we were to award a gold medal to the word in
  this title with the juiciest meaning, the word
  "by" would be the lucky winner. When we think of
  woods, we imagine being in them, surrounded by
  trees.
• However, our speaker is not in the midst of a
  great forest he's actually just next to the
  woods and staring at the trees. Staring at woods
  strikes us as just a wee bit strange.

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• We can imagine hanging out with trees, because
  trees are cool. But our speaker is on the
  periphery of the woods he's separate from them.
  Before we begin the poem, Frost makes us aware of
  the fact that the speaker is not inside the
  woods, but is rather beside them.
• -the end

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