Robert Frost was an American poet and winner of four Pulitzer prizes. His famous works include "Fire and Ice", "Mending Wall" , "Home Burial" etc. Frost spent his first fourty years as an unknown He exploded on the scene after returning from England at the beginning of first World war. He died of complications from prostate surgery on January 29, 1963.
Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, California. He spent 11 years there until his father died. Then he moved with his mother and sister to Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1894, Frost had his first poem, "My Butterfly: an Elegy," published in The Independent, a weekly literary journal based in New York city. In 1913, he published "The boy's will" from which poems like "storm fear" , "The tuft of Flowers" etc became standard anthology pieces. The Stopping by Woods on a snowy evening is a well known Frost classic. Published in 1923 it quickly became a poem to keep in the memory and although many people know the words by heart, interpretation isn't quite as straightforward.
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 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.
To whom did the woods belong?
Did the rider see a farmhouse?
During which season (or month) do you think this event took place? Give a reason for your answer.
How did the horse signal that he wanted to move on?
Why do you think the rider stopped by the woods?
Why was the horse puzzled?