Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

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Robert Frost’s early work in poetry often carried many hidden meanings. An example of this is his famous poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In this poem, Frost utilizes a specific setting, a deliberate choice of meter, and a carefully constructed rhyme scheme to convey the message of an individual battling with the choice between society’s constructs and the allure of freedom from tradition. Additionally, the poem contemplates the decision to continue along one 's own path without being distracted along the way by the disruptions of life. This essay will break down his methods for conveying this meaning and delve deeper into the literary devices that make Frost’s poem such a masterpiece.
The first and most effective plot device in Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” is the setting. In the first four lines of the work, Frost’s speaker finds himself deep in woods that belong to an individual that lives in the village. The owner likely has no idea the speaker is there. In this poem, the village represents what is tried and true about society. It is warm, and safe and sheltered, symbolizing the responsibilities, traditions and social constructs most people live by. By contrast, the woods that stand before the speaker are “lovely, dark and deep,” (Frost 13, Mays). It is clear from the stark contrast between the safety of the village and the dark mystery of the forest that the woods represent freedom from society. Possibly, it also represents the

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