Stopping by Woods

Story

A wagon driver stops in the woods on a snowy evening and takes a moment to rest and contemplate the beauty and stillness of the scene. His horse finds it strange to stop somewhere so cold and dark. The driver is caught between a desire to stay and rest and the promises he has to keep at the end of his journey.

Why we chose it

This poem is considered one of Frost’s best and is enjoyed for its simple, easily-understood verse and reflective subject matter.

Where it came from

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet. He is well-known for writing poems about rural life and everyday things in a language that is strictly poetic but also accessible to everybody. He liked to depict human reactions to nature as a way of examining deeper meaning in life. It is said he was inspired to write this poem while watching a sunrise over New Hampshire at the end of a long night writing a different poem, New Hampshire.

Where it went next

The poem was published in a volume of poetry called New Hampshire, which won the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. It included a number of Frost’s other well-known poems like Nothing Gold Can Stay and Fire and Ice.

Associated stories

Robert Frost wrote a number of poetry collections and is commonly considered one of the best American poets of the 20th century. Other well-known poems of his are The Road Not Taken (1916), Birches (1916) and After Apple-Picking (1914). He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature on thirty one occasions.