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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost

January 18th 2009 21:01

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

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.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I love this poem because it's a perfect marriage of idea and form. This is actually a variation on the sonnet form, and it reminds me of the Spenserian sonnet's interlocking rhyme scheme, though this poem has a much narrower scheme. The rhyme scheme here is AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD. It almost seems like a combination of the Italian sonnet and Spenserian sonnet, taking the very narrow and repetitive rhyme of the Italian and interlocking it stanza by stanza like the Spenserian sonnet.

The poem's written in perfect iambic tetrameter, all except for the last line of the third stanza, which has an extra syllable. Although "the easy" can easily be melted together to sound like "th'easy", I think it would have actually been better if the word "the" had been taken out, to leave "of easy wind and downy flake." But, Frost was the master, and apparently the critics liked this poem, so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut.

The repetitive rhyme scheme and appealing meter make it sound like a song, and maybe that's the way he wanted it to sound anyway. It could easily be put to music. I like it because it talks about a regular, everyday occurrence and makes it beautiful in a simple way. I also appreciate this poem because it's tough to make a poem with such a tight rhyme scheme and meter make sense and be meaningful. But I suppose that's why Frost was famous. This is definitely one of my favorite poems of his.

Tomorrow I'll look at a villanelle I wrote recently, some qualities of which I don't really like, and I'll explain why. It's difficult to change a villanelle without completely re-writing it...I guess I'll figure it out.

See you tomorrow and have a good night!

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Posted By: Andrew Kerstetter - Category: formal poetry, sonnet, criticism, meter

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This gold is here to stay

January 12th 2009 15:24

"Nothing Gold Can Stay," by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

I think this is one of my favorite poems of all time. It's such a short little poem, but in these lines he offers a beautiful critique not only on the beauty of nature, but on the nature of beauty in general.

Each line is six syllables long, except, technically, the third line, which is seven; but the syllables of the word "flower" can easily be muddled into one long syllable like the word "flour." And its rhyme partner, "hour," works perfectly with it. Also, the last line is only five syllables, which I think works well for the short but powerful ending to this short and powerful poem.

The whole poem is written in a perfect iambic, except for the first line, which begins with a trochee (NAture's), which I feel works well for the poem; it sort of gives it a kick-start. Also the last line is trochaic. Trochaic bookends, a coincidence? Maybe it is, but it was a coincidence that Frost probably saw upon finishing the poem and liked it, so decided to leave it that way. Who knows.

The rhyming couplets are well-done, to me, because the rhymes are natural and easy-sounding; no messed up syntax or nonsense rhymes just for the sake of rhyming. Also, the rhymed lines are closely related to each other, so it gives the poem a nice sort of grouping within the whole. I have seen a couple versions of this online that changes "to day" in the second to last line to "today," but I'm pretty sure "to day" is the way it was originally written. And it just makes more sense given the context of the poem.

I love the idea of transitory beauty, and how it only lasts for a short time in the beginning. I found it interesting that in this poem Frost doesn't say that anything is ugly or undesirable after the first beauty is gone; it just goes. He could have equated it as day fading to night, which a lot of other poets might have done, but that wouldn't have had the same effect, I think. In a lot of the poetry I've read, it seems that day fading to night signifies an end, or a fall from grace.

But Frost says "dawn goes down to day." I love that line! It almost implies, to me, that the perfect, delicate beauty of dawn is not and should not be the focal point, since day is usually thought of as the important part of life...the longest and full of the most energy. This is a hopeful little poem that celebrates life, even if it isn't always beautiful.

It even has a spiritual side, with the line "So Eden sank to grief". And with that line being right before "dawn goes down to day," this also implies to me that Eden's sinking into grief might not necessarily have been a terrible thing, but more like a thing that happened irrevocably, and now our day might not be as beautiful. But so what? It's still our day, and we're living in it, so we should make the most of it and think of it as day instead of night.

A lovely little poem with so much energy and a loud voice...just like we should be every day in this big world of ours.

Tomorrow I'll delve into some free verse again by talking about a little poem that I wrote just the other day. See you tomorrow!

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Posted By: Andrew Kerstetter - Category: formal poetry, criticism, meter

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