In the poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the speaker stops by some woods on a snowy

evening and absorbs the lovely scene. The speaker is tempted to stay longer, but acknowledges that he
has obligations and a considerable distance to travel before he can rest for the night. The speaker talks
with a tone of satisfaction, but at the end of the poem shows a tone of fatigue or tedium. The mood of
poem, devotion, appears in lines fourteen and fifteen.

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The poem offers a great deal of imagery, such as dark, deep woods in line thirteen that are being filled
with large amounts of snow pouring from the sky in line four, and house in a small village, again the
snow coming down, except this time on the roof the house, in line three. Also, a frozen lake, let it be big
or small, with the sky darkening fast, in lines seven and eight. In the third stanza, a horse is shown
shaking the bells on his reigns, as if to call the attention of the speaker, to inform him that he must have
made a mistake.

The poem consists of four almost identically constructed quatrains. Each line has iambic tetrameter.
Within the four lines of each stanza, the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme. The third line does not,
but it sets up the rhymes for the next stanza. The rhyme scheme is as follows: a,a,b,a;b,b,c,b. For
example, in the second stanza, lines five through eight, queer, near, and year all rhyme, but lake rhymes
with shake, mistake, and flake in the following stanza. The only exception is the last stanza in which the
third line rhymes with the previous two lines and is repeated as the fourth line, therefore the rhyme
scheme: d,d,d,d.

This poem speaks of wanting to enjoy the pleasures of life, such as watching woods fill up with snow,
but then it concludes with the speaker acknowledging that he has work to do, and one can assume that
he proceeds on to do it. The poem seems to be stating that it is all right to enjoy the special moments in
life, but if one makes a promise, he should not compromise it with the things he enjoys, even if the
activities seem better than working.

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