1Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening[雪夜林边小驻]Whose woods these are I think I know,我知道林子的主人是谁，His house is in the village though.虽村落是他所居之地。
He will not see me stopping here,他不会看到我停留于此，To watch his woods fill up with snow.凝视他的林子雪花纷飞。
My little horse must think it queer,我的小马一定以我为怪，To stop without a farmhouse near,近无房舍，为何停伫。
Between the woods and frozen lake,况只有林子与冰湖，The darkest evening of the year.和一年中最黑之夜。
He gives his harness bells a shake,他轻摇铃具To ask if there is some mistake.询问有错与否。
The only other sound's the sweep,唯一的回复来自，Of easy wind and downy flake.软雪和清风。
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.林子很美——昏暗而幽深，But I have promises to keep,但我已有约定。
And miles to go before I sleep.沉醉前还有一段路要走And miles to go before I sleep沉醉前还有一段路要走。
Summary:On the surface, this poem is simplicity itself. The speaker is stopping by some woods on a snowyevening.Heorshetakesinthelovelysceneinnear-silence,istemptedtostaylonger,butacknowledges the pull of obligations and the considerable distance yet to be traveled before he orshe can rest for the night.Form:The poem consists of four (almost) identically constructed stanzas. Each line is iambic, with fourstressed syllables:Do not be fooled by the simple words and the easiness of the rhymes; this is a very difficult formto achieve in English without debilitating a poem's content with forced rhymes.Commentary:Thebasicconflictinthepoem,resolvedinthelastanza,isbetweenattractiontowardthewoo ds and the pull of responsibility outside of the woods. What do woods represent? Somethinggood? Something bad? Woods are sometimes a symbol for wildness, madness, the pre-rational,theloomingirrational.Butthesewoodsdonotseemparticularlywild.Theyaresomeone'sw oods,someone's in particular--the owner lives in the village. But that owner is in the village on this, thedarkest evening of the year--so would any sensible person be. That is where the division seems tolie, between the village (or "society," "civilization," "duty," "sensibility," "responsibility") and thewoods (that which is beyond the borders of the village and all it represents). If the woods are notparticularly wicked, they still possess the seed of the irrational; and they are, at night, dark--withall the varied connotations of darkness.Part of what is irrational about the woods is their attraction. They are restful, seductive, lovely,dark,anddeep--likedeepsleep,likeoblivion.Snowfallsindownyflakes,likeablankettolieunder and be covered by. And here is where many readers hear dark undertones to this lyric. Torest too long while snow falls could be to lose one's way, to lose the path, to freeze and die. Doesthis poem express a death wish, considered and then discarded? Do the woods sing a siren's song?To be lulled to sleep could be truly dangerous. Is allowing oneself to be lulled akin to giving upthe struggle of prudence and self-preservation? Or does the poemmerely describe the temptationto sit and watch beauty while responsibilities are forgotten--to succumb to a mood for a while?The woods sit on the edge of civilization; one way or another, they draw the speaker away fromit(anditspromises,itsgoodsense)."Society"wouldcondemnstoppinghereinthedark,inth esnow--it is ill advised. The speaker ascribes society's reproach to the horse, which may seem, atfirst, a bit odd. But the horse is a domesticated part of the civilized order of things; it is the nearestthing to society's agent at this place and time. And having the horse reprove the speaker (even ifonly in the speaker's imagination) helps highlight several uniquely human features of the speaker'sdilemma. One is the regard for beauty (often flying in the face of practical concern or the survivalinstinct); another is the attraction to danger, the unknown, the dark mystery; and the third--perhapsrelated but distinct--is the possibility of the death wish, of suicide.Notthatwemustreturntoooftentothatdarkestinterpretationofthepoem.Beautyalo neisasufficientsiren;asufficientprotectionagainstherseductionisanunwillingnesstogive uponsociety despite the responsibilities it imposes. The line "And miles to go before I sleep" need notimply burden alone; perhaps the ride home will be lovely, too. Indeed, the line could be read asreferring to Frost's career as a poet, and at this time he had plenty of good poems left in him.2This poem is written by the American poet Robert Frost whose works are mostly concerned withnature. In this poem, he describes a little incident happening in a snowy evening. As a traveler, thepoet is fascinated by the beautiful scene in the woods. He stops to enjoy it, but his mind urges himto go on, because there is still a long way ahead of him, an unfinished duty waiting for him. Thispoemisplainwords,butprofoundinmeaning.Sinceitisfullofsymbolicconstructs,itisth ought- provoking, and the readers can get great fun in developing the subtext.In the first stanza, the poet leads us to a piece of beautiful woods filled up with snow. Asweallknowthatthewoodsareusuallylinkedwithmyth,theunknownworld,andtheutmostt ranquillity. We can guess that, in this poem, the poet takes the woods as the eternal life, thebliss,thatistosaytheHeaven.Heisfedupwitheroutineduties,andwantstorestforever.The woods happens to provide an ideal place.In the third stanza, the little horse wonders why the poet stops when he should have go on.Only “the easy wind” and “downy flake” answer it with soft sweep. We can imagin the scene:the“downy flake” is so light and gentle that it flies in the soft wind. Thus we can get the idea:thepoet’s answer is as slight and uncertain as theflakes, because he himself doesn’tknow why hestops suddenly in the woods.In this poem, Robert Frost discusses the relation between mortal obligations and the eternalrest. One leaves no regrets after he dies, as long as one has reached his goal.3In the poem,“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the speaker stops by some woods ona snowy evening and absorbs the lovely scene. The speaker is tempted to stay longer, butThe poem consists of four almost identically constructed quatrains. Each line has iambictetrameter. Within the four lines of each stanza, the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme. Thethird line does not, but it sets up the rhymes for the next stanza. The rhyme scheme is asfollows: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 followingstanza. The only exception is the last stanza in which the third line rhymes with the previoustwo lines and is repeated as the fourth line, therefore the rhyme scheme:d,d,d,d.depression or loneliness. The third stanza of the poem brings the strangeness of the situationto a head. The only other living being in this cold lonely landscape, the speaker's horse takesaction to find the reason for the odd stopping. The noise from the inquisitive harness bellsprovide contrast to the quiet of the scene, where the only other sounds a wind and snow. Thedescriptions of the sounds provide a little insightto the speaker's mindset and position. He is sostill that he can here the soft fall of the downy flake and hear the movement of the easy wind.This also shows a great calm and patience that the speaker must posses. The final stanza of thepoem brings all the sentiments of the poem together, an intense love and awe of nature, anever ending patience and some unknown task or problem that robs the speaker of rest. Thedark and deep woods seem to reflect the speaker, his dark emotion and depth of character.There stillness also contrasts with the need of the repeated closing lines And miles to go beforeI sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep. These final lines represent the problem that has plaguedthe speaker and that is most likely responsible for his dark mood. It is something that isundefined that does not demand a rush to deal with, but is important enough to demandattention. The poem as a whole, is a simple effigy of a quiet thoughtful night. I can easily relateto the poem, the emotions it describes and the way that the images are presented. The carelessease with which the poem is read is vital to the poem as a whole. Also this is my favorite poem,I didn't have to open the book to rember it, only to see its format again. It reminds me of themoods I feel on snowy nights or early mornings. I live in the woods and before I drove; I oftenwalked through them as a shortcut to visit friends, so I have many memories of stopping by aneighbors wood on an easy walk home, and watching the snow slowly fall.。