Analysis of Acquainted with the Night and Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
Research Paper first draft
16th Nov 2011
In a Dark Night, I Find My Answers. The two poems “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Acquainted with the Night” written by Robert Frost are very similar to each other because of the simplistic form of language used and the uses of metaphors. When we first read the poem, it looks like an ordinary poem but once we go in depth and understand the meaning, it becomes so much more. Both of the poem has a very dark, gloomy and lonely setting with a really mysterious tone. There are different metaphors used in each poem to symbolize death; “Sleep” in “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Night” in “Acquainted with the Night.” The characters in the two poem are both in a journey and has come to a point where they are unwilling to go any further and find about how their future is going to be. But they are compelled to go further ahead despite wanting to not take the next step ahead. Frost does not have a very straight forward writing about what is going on but he puts some hints in the poem to give us an idea of what could be going on.
Like the woods it relates to, the poem is beautiful but lures us with it’s dark depths of explication. The scene is calm, lonely and beautiful of a man who stops by the woods on a snowy evening but has a very deep meaning. “Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here.” from the poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” sets up a mood for us as if the character is not supposed to be there but thinks it is not a problem because the owner has no idea of his presence since he lives in the village. This then makes us ask the question, “Why is he there? What is his purpose of being there?” which makes the scene mysterious. The poem “Acquainted with the Night” is set at night and the only light that fills the streets is the moon. “I have passed the watchman on his beat. And dropped my eyes unwilling to explain.” from
16th Nov 2011
In a Dark Night, I Find My Answers. The two poems “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Acquainted with the Night” written by Robert Frost are very similar to each other because of the simplistic form of language used and the uses of metaphors. When we first read the poem, it looks like an ordinary poem but once we go in depth and understand the meaning, it becomes so much more. Both of the poem has a very dark, gloomy and lonely setting with a really mysterious tone. There are different metaphors used in each poem to symbolize death; “Sleep” in “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Night” in “Acquainted with the Night.” The characters in the two poem are both in a journey and has come to a point where they are unwilling to go any further and find about how their future is going to be. But they are compelled to go further ahead despite wanting to not take the next step ahead. Frost does not have a very straight forward writing about what is going on but he puts some hints in the poem to give us an idea of what could be going on.
Like the woods it relates to, the poem is beautiful but lures us with it’s dark depths of explication. The scene is calm, lonely and beautiful of a man who stops by the woods on a snowy evening but has a very deep meaning. “Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here.” from the poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” sets up a mood for us as if the character is not supposed to be there but thinks it is not a problem because the owner has no idea of his presence since he lives in the village. This then makes us ask the question, “Why is he there? What is his purpose of being there?” which makes the scene mysterious. The poem “Acquainted with the Night” is set at night and the only light that fills the streets is the moon. “I have passed the watchman on his beat. And dropped my eyes unwilling to explain.” from
Cited: Frost, Robert. “Acquainted with the Night.” Frost, Robert. “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” New Hampshire. 1923.