Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shakeTo ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound's the sweepOf 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.
Words in this poem
- farmhouse n.
- A dwelling house on a farm; a farmer's residence.
- flake n.
- A paling; a hurdle. [prov. Eng.] [Cf. Icel. flaki, fleki, Dan. flage, D. vlaak.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening is in the public domain. This text is taken from New Hampshire, A Poem; with Notes and Grace Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #58611; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening, in New Hampshire (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #58611, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-new-hampshire/stopping-by-woods-on-snowy-evening.html, id L02696.
Form and metre
Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABA knowA · thoughA · hereB · snowA
- 2 BBCB queerB · nearB · lakeC · yearB
- 3 CCDC shakeC · mistakeC · sweepD · flakeC
- 4 DDDD deepD · keepD · sleepD · sleepD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Whose woods these are I think I know. | 8 | ········ |
| His house is in the village though; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He will not see me stopping here | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To watch his woods fill up with snow. | 8 | ········ |
| My little horse must think it queer | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To stop without a farmhouse near | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Between the woods and frozen lake | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The darkest evening of the year. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| He gives his harness bells a shake | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To ask if there is some mistake. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The only other sound's the sweep | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Of easy wind and downy flake. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The woods are lovely, dark and deep, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But I have promises to keep, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| And miles to go before I sleep, | 8 | ········ |
| And miles to go before I sleep. | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.