Page 90 - DENG105_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_II

Unit 7: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost—Detailed Study and Analysis

• It must be really cold if the lake is frozen, and we also are kind of intrigued by the fact Notes
that the speaker is not riding through the woods, but is right beside the woods.

Line 8
The darkest evening of the year.

• Not only is it snowy and wintry, but it’s also approaching night-time too.
• Why is this speaker dilly-dallying when the light is dying and the snow is falling? A lot
of people in his place would want to scurry home as fast as is humanly possible.
• Besides sounding ominous and like the preview to a horror movie, “the darkest evening
of the year” makes us think of the winter solstice, which occurs in late December (in the
northern hemisphere) each year and marks the moment at which the sun is at its farthest
possible distance from the observer.
• It also happens to mark the beginning of winter.

• Whatever the case may be, it’s dark out and it’s getting darker by the minute. We don’t
think that the speaker is the kind of guy to pack flashlights.

Stanza 3

He gives his harness bells a shake,

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

Explanation: Sounds are important in this stanza—namely, the sounds of the bells, the wind,
and the snowflakes. All of the sounds are gentle, contrasting with the cacophony of everyday
life in a town.

Line 9
He gives his harness bells a shake
• Even though the speaker can read his little horse’s mind, the horse can’t talk back.

• So, the next best option is to shake his booty. And by shaking his booty, we mean that
he shakes his harness a little. There are little bells attached to his harness, which give a
nice little jingle (think Santa Claus’s sleigh).
Line 10
To ask if there is some mistake.

• Again with the mind reading. Our speaker knows his horse is shaking his bells in order
to “ask” his master if something is awry, if there’s a problem.
• It’s kind of like the horse is saying, “Hey, is everything OK? We’ve been standing here
staring at nothing for a little while, and I just wanted to make sure you didn’t need me
to keep on truckin’. I’m cool with the standing still thing, but I just wanted to make sure
I wasn’t misinterpreting you.”

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