Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evenin

In high school and middle school I read stopping by the woods on a snowy evening. I always liked the way the poem gave the image of a lone man in a carriage with a single horse. Even though the poem isn’t the most descriptive when it comes to details of the night it is so good at creating the image of the lone figure trotting down the road. The rhyme of the poem follows the same pattern until the last stanza, the repetition of the rhyme and the last sentence adding emphasis to the fact that this man is far from his destination. Also the rhyme in the third line of each line is the main rhyme scheme of the next stanza maybe foretelling what the character has in store for him. The setting of the poem could definitely be seen in two different lights and changes the meaning of the poem dramatically. In one sense it tells of a man who is out on a winter night with things to do and stops to think and ponder and in a sense enjoy the night. The other is a bit more abstract and I may be way off on my interpretation but I also get the sense of a man alone in a rough patch of his life. He is out and knows whose woods he is in but they are nowhere near him and he is just with his horse who seems annoyed for the pause. The last two lines hint in this case that the man in unhappy and has a long ways to go before either he is happy again or until he dies. It is sad and very abstract but in a strange way the way the tone of the poem keeps reinforcing this idea of loneliness and solitude. Another possibility is that he doesn’t have one and is just out, much like my drives sometimes at night just to clear my head and refocus on the moment. It gives the poem a personal meaning, one that most can relate to, whether it be a late night walk or drive.