Friday, January 20, 2012

What is the interpretation of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost?

The second stanza of the famous Frost poem published
(1923) in New Hampshire contains a highly significant
allusion:



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. (my
emphasis)



Although Frost
never made the claim to have done so, it is possible, perhaps even probable that once
written he would have allowed this allusion to the opening lines of Dante's Inferno to
stand. Briefly, the opening lines of the Divina Commedia
(Inferno) find the poet lost midway upon the road of
life within a dark wood, having strayed from the right way. However, Frost's allusion is
far more sweeping in its implication. Not only does it refer to the "woods" of despair
into which the middle-aged Dante has wandered, it takes in the whole topography of Hell,
including its bottom most "frozen lake" in which Satan is encased. This sweeping
allusion imparts a significance to the poem far beyond the simple tableau it
depicts. Frost struggled with despair all his life. What better way to convey this than
by linking his dark winter journey of life to the pilgrim poet par
excellence
- Dante whose "dark night of the soul" and search for God are
reflected in the Divine Comedy.

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