Robert Frost

Robert Frost has been described as an ordinary man with a deep respect for nature, talking to ordinary people. To what extent do you agree with this view? Poetry is a literary medium which often resonates with the responder on a personal level, through the subject matter of the poem, and the techniques used to portray this. Robert Frost utilises many techniques to convey his respect for nature, which consequently makes much of his poetry relevant to the everyday person.The poems â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ and â€Å"The mending wall† strongly illuminate Frost’s reverence to nature and deal with such matter that allows Frost to speak to ordinary people. On the surface, â€Å"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening† deals with a seemingly unimportant event, of the poet stopping one winter evening, mesmerised by the snow and the wood. However, at a figurative level, the poem goes deeper dealing with the concept of the choices that people make in life. The poem is set in a rural area, with merely an implication of the city in â€Å"his house is in the village†.This setting choice as well as stanza 1, which tells of the poet stopping to â€Å"watch his woods fill up with snow†, creates a strong image of nature being a predominant feature of this poem. The first stanza also creates a contrast between the poet and the owner of the woods who is presumably a ‘sensible’ person staying warm in his house. This raises the question of why the poet has stopped in such cold weather. Hence, this contrast serves as a metaphor that provides a link back to the concept of the poem, as it may speak of his choice to be involved with life, rather than choosing ‘comfortable withdrawal’ [‘Poetry of Robert Frost’].The poem continues contrasting the poet with his horse, Frost personifying the latter in â€Å"My little horse must think it queer/ To stop without a farmhouse near†. This meta phor shows that even the persona acknowledges, through his horse, that others may not make sense of the choice he has made to continue his journey on the â€Å"darkest evening of the year†. However, the responder is able to get a sense of what the persona is so entranced by in the third stanza, where there is a beauty in the woods as the â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake†.The assonance of the letter ‘o’ in this creates a soft, dream-like tone, which emphasises the poet’s captivation by the scenery. The final stanza expands on this, opening with â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep†. The use of the word â€Å"lovely† reinforces the beauty of the woods, but the alliteration of the letter ‘d’ creates a heavy tone which may indicate that they could be perilous. For the poet, these words could mean that for him the woods represent escapism and irrationality.Due the allure that the woods clearly have over the poet, he is faced with a choice at the end of the poem- to stay and enter the â€Å"woods† or to continue on his journey in life. He makes his choice clear in the final lines of the last stanza saying â€Å"But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep†. His choice is clear through the use of the word â€Å"but† and the repetition of the final two lines emphasises that it is ‘life and personal involvement that he chooses, rather than withdrawal and death’ [‘Poetry of Robert Frost’].Hence, Frost effectively juxtaposes the gentle attractiveness of the woods with the clear call to journey on and fulfil promises. Throughout this poem, Frost uses much of the imagery of the natural environment to ‘enhance the aural and visual impact of the poem’ [Common Poetry, Robert Frost], and deals with a concept that is faced ‘ordinary people’ everyday- th at of making a choice to go on in life even when it is so appealing to simply go into the â€Å"dark and deep†.Therefore, this poem illuminates Frosts’ respect for nature as well as his ability to speak to ordinary people. This ability is also conveyed in ‘Mending Wall’, a one stanza poem that explores Frost’s ideas about the barriers’ that exist in relationships. Literally, the poem is about two neighbours who disagree about the need of building a wall to separate their properties. However, when the responders’ delves deeper into the poem, it is clear that at a allegorical level the wall is a metaphor representing the barrier that exists in the neighbours’ friendship.The first eleven lines of the poem if rife with imagery that describes the dilapidation of the wall. The first line of the poem emphasises that â€Å"something† exists that â€Å"doesn’t love a wall†. This personification makes the â€Å"somet hing† seem human-like. The use of words such as â€Å"spills† and â€Å"makes gaps† convey an image of animate actions and create a vivid impression of the degradation of the wall. Nature, presented in the form of cold weather, frost and the activities of creatures, also seeks to destroy the wall.The idea that walls are unnatural and therefore nature abhors walls is portrayed in the phrase â€Å"makes gaps even two can pass abreast†, which metaphorically indicates that nature desires for man to walk side by side with no barrier between them. When the two meet to fix the wall, it is a metaphor that could be interpreted as the two repairing their friendship as â€Å"To each the boulders have fallen to each† which shows that faults in their relationship lie on behalf of them both.While they are mending the wall, a light-hearted tone is established. This is shown through the inclusion of the metaphor â€Å"spring is mischief in me† which shows th e neighbours having fun together in repairing the wall, creating a cheerful atmosphere. This creates an ironic feel to the poem, as although the beginning of the poem presented negativity to erecting the wall, mending the wall is allowing the neighbours to spend more time together and hence strengthening their communication and friendship.Despite this, the narrator continues to question the purpose of the wall. To portray this, there is a repetition of â€Å"something there is that doesn’t love a wall†, which emphasises that-like nature- the narrator wants the wall to be taken down. However, the neighbour who is described using the simile â€Å"like an old-stone savage† and thus could be a representation of society which is also rigid in its views, only replies with â€Å"Good fences make good neighbours†.There is a repetition of this statement throughout the poem, which effectively asserts the opinion that society adopts in regards to ‘barriersâ₠¬â„¢ between people: that although people can be close friends, for a successful relationship there will always be a barrier in between them, acting as a boundary that grants privacy and security. Like many of his other poems, Frost once again shows his respect for nature in this poem through his portrayal of it as a sort of body that only wills harmony and friendship among all.He also succeeds in speaking to ordinary people through his exploration of such a universal matter, that impacts upon each human’s life everyday- that of the perpetual metaphorical wall that is present in relationships. In conclusion, â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† and â€Å"Mending Wall† are poems that use nature to epitomise what the poet is trying to portray and deal with concepts that have a personal meaning to every single responder. Hence, it can be said that Frost indeed had a deep respect for nature and spoke to ordinary people. Robert Frost A Snowy Evening with Robert Frost Robert Frost once said, â€Å"It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a loneliness. It is never a thought to begin with. It is at best when it is a tantalizing vagueness. † (â€Å"Poetry Foundation† n. d. ). This poem holds a lot of mystery in its meaning which has a variety of interpretations. John T. Ogilvie who wrote, â€Å"From Woods to Stars: A pattern of Imagery in Robert Frost’s Poetry† interprets this as a poem about the journey through life. James G. Hepburn who wrote, â€Å"Robert Frost and His Critics† took a different approach.He believes this poem to be about the aesthetics and moral action. This poem contains a variety of literary devices that not only describe the scenery but also the scene itself. Despite its critics who believe this poem to be about the scenery and moral action, Robert Frost’s poem is best understood as a journey through life, because its literary design allows many to have interpreted it this way. â€Å"To watch his woods fill up with snow† â€Å"To stop without a farm house near/ Between the woods and frozen lake/ The darkest evening of the year. † â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake. â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,† (842-843). The description of the woods is seductive because of the rhyme scheme, AABA/BBCB/CCDC/DDDD. Robert Frost has made comments about the form of this poem, â€Å"a series of almost reckless commitments I feel good in having guarded it so. [It is]†¦my heavy duty poem to be examined for the rime pairs. † (Frost on Stopping by Woods N. D. ). The English language is not as rhyme friendly as other languages such as Italian or French. The English language is a melting pot of many different languages limiting the amount of words that rhyme.As John Ciardi says, â€Å"In ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ Frost took a long chance. He decided to rhyme not two lines, but three in each stanza. Not even Frost could have sustained that much rhyme in a long poem. † (Ciardi, How Does a Poem Mean? ). This allows the reader to be hypnotized by the rhythm Frost has created. By repeating the ‘o’ sound, ‘though’ also starts the series of rhymes that will soon get the better of the reader. For example this is seen clearly in the opening lines of the poem, â€Å"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/. † (842). As the reader begins to recognize the pattern of the poem it guides them into the same drowsy feeling as the narrator is experiencing. James G. Hepburn, who wrote â€Å"Robert Frost and His Critics,† says, â€Å"Each of the first three stanzas begins flatly; each rises, with the last line or two lines, towards the spell; but not until the end of the third stanza is the rise powerful, and not until the opening of the fourth and final stanza is the rise sustained rather than broken. So from the above lines and evidence we can interpret these lines as follows. The narrator is most likely returning home from some errand that took him far away from his home. He is riding his horse late at night or late day and has stumbled upon some beautiful scenery. This is when he decides to stop and take in everything that he is seeing. When the narrator first stopped in the woods he has a good idea of whose land this is, which is stated in the first two lines. Rueben A.Bower who wrote, â€Å"The Poetry of Robert Frost: Constellations of Intention† says, â€Å"The very tentative tone of the opening line lets us into the mood without quite sensing where it will lead, just as the ordinariness of ‘though’ at the end of the second line assures us that we are in the world. † Robert Frost did not start this poem with the magical whimsy of the woods but instead with the mood they contain (Hepburn 1962) â€Å"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/. (842). By doing this he allows the reader to have a better understanding of why the narrator would stop to look upon this beautiful scenery. As Hepburn says in his article, â€Å"Robert Frost and His Critics† â€Å"The mood that the poem induces in the reader nullifies his acceptance of the intention expressed by the traveler. The sum of the reader’s experience of the poem is different from the meaning of the traveler’s experience of the woods. Presumably the traveler goes home to supper, to his duties, and to the rest of his journey through life; but these things are not the poem. Frost made some comments on the factors mood plays in a poem, â€Å"†¦ the poet’s intention is of course a particular mood that w on’t be satisfied with anything less than its own fulfillment. † (Hepburn 1962). This poem isn’t a recreated experience but meant to be an experience in itself. This poem has some interesting symbolism in it takes us on a journey through a man’s life. When the narrator first stops, instead of questioning himself, he questions what the horse thinks, â€Å"My little horse must think it queer† (842).By questioning the horse, he is really questioning his own reasons, which people often do while they make life decisions or everyday decisions. The horse is also a symbol of time the horse is questioning his stopping and urges him to move on to prevent the further loss of time (Anonymous). When the narrator’s horse shakes his harness bells, he then becomes a symbol, as John Ciardi thinks, â€Å".. order of life that does not understand why a man stops in the winter middle of nowhere to watch snow come down. † The horse is the will power persis tent in the subconscious of a man.The horse urges him to get back to his business by the shake of his harness bells which is indirectly contrast the narrator who would like to stay in the woods. Even though his horse is urging him to be responsible he continues to be enticed by the soft lull of the woods just like the reader is. For example, â€Å"He gives his harness bells a shake/ To ask if there is some mistake. † (842). The sound of the horses harness bells is contrasting against the sounds of the woods described as, â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake. (843). This is the woods contradicting the symbolism of the horse making their presence relevant. In life there are often two main choices to be made. Similar to this poem the narrator can either stay in the woods or go back to his everyday life. The speaker is going ahead and his ‘sleep’ may be the symbol for the end of his life. The journey in this poem turns out to b e more complicated than the life of an average man. The darkness of the woods is symbolic of the ‘easy’ way out or the path people before him have taken.The wind and downy flakes also have a similar symbolism. While the flakes appear to be soft, they are also cold which is less forgiving. The reader and the narrator share all of the experiences together as the poem goes on. For example, the line â€Å"The darkest evening of the year. † (842) is a correlation between life and the obligations he is carrying. This line also adds an unbroken curve of rhythm. As Ruben A. Bower (1963) goes on to explain, it adds to the sense of moving into a spell-world.We note the linking rhymes that tie in with the first stanza. Different symbols in this poem though reveal that stop in the poem could be referring to death or the journey through life. In this phrase â€Å"Between the woods and frozen lake†, the wood becomes a symbol of life while the frozen lake signifies death . When the speaker reaches the woods, he finds a world offering perfect, quiet and solitude, existing side by side with the realization that there is also another world, a world of people and social obligation. Both worlds have a claim on the poet.He stops by the wood on this â€Å"darkest evening of the year† to watch them â€Å"fill up with snow†, and remains there so long that his â€Å"little horse† shakes his â€Å"harness bells† to ask if there is â€Å"some mistake† (842). That little horse’s action reminds him of the â€Å"promises† he has to keep and the miles he still has to travel. (843). The theme of this poem is a journey, and not simply a journey through the woods but through life itself. There is an expectant tone throughout the poem. The narrator stops for a brief time to meditate and realizes he needs to continue on his journey through the woods and his journey through life.This poem also has a â€Å"romantic† theme as well as subject. Again the speaker is returning home and stops to take in the beautiful scenery. As the urgency to move on becomes more apparent the narrator begins to regret that he must leave. The narrator is romanticizing what he is passing which is time and pleasure. â€Å"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. † (842-843). For example, the words â€Å"lovely† â€Å"snow† â€Å"lake† â€Å"evening† and â€Å"easy wind and downy flake† (840-843) are all romantic in nature.Also the way the narrator talks about nature makes the loving relationship he has with it a romantic notion. â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake. † (843). It is also seen in this line, â€Å"To watch his woods fill up with snow. / †¦ Between the woods and frozen lake/ The darkest evening of the year. † (842). As Jeffrey Meyers says, â€Å"The theme of â€Å"Stopping by Woods†Ã¢â‚¬â€œdespite Frost's disclaimer–is the temptation of death, even suicide, symbolized by the woods that are filling up with snow on the darkest evening of the year.The speaker is powerfully drawn to these woods and–like Hans Castorp in the â€Å"Snow' chapter of Mann's  Magic Mountain–wants to lie down and let the snow cover and bury him. The third quatrain, with its drowsy, dream-like line: â€Å"Of easy wind and downy flake,† opposes the horse's instinctive urge for home with the man's subconscious desire for death in the dark, snowy woods. The speaker says, â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,† but he resists their morbid attraction. † (Meyers 1996).The journey threw life and the temptations of death and the peace it may bring some individuals is the theme of this poem. Although some may not agree with this interpretation of Robert Frost â€Å"Sto pping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† like James G. Hepburn who thinks, â€Å"This poem is a tribute to the New England sense of duty.. † (Hepburn 1962). But as you have seen this poem is about a journey through life. The way the poem uses literary tactics lead us to this very specific interpretation. As Robert Frost once said, â€Å"A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. † (Frost on Stopping by Woods N. D. ). Robert Frost A Snowy Evening with Robert Frost Robert Frost once said, â€Å"It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a loneliness. It is never a thought to begin with. It is at best when it is a tantalizing vagueness. † (â€Å"Poetry Foundation† n. d. ). This poem holds a lot of mystery in its meaning which has a variety of interpretations. John T. Ogilvie who wrote, â€Å"From Woods to Stars: A pattern of Imagery in Robert Frost’s Poetry† interprets this as a poem about the journey through life. James G. Hepburn who wrote, â€Å"Robert Frost and His Critics† took a different approach.He believes this poem to be about the aesthetics and moral action. This poem contains a variety of literary devices that not only describe the scenery but also the scene itself. Despite its critics who believe this poem to be about the scenery and moral action, Robert Frost’s poem is best understood as a journey through life, because its literary design allows many to have interpreted it this way. â€Å"To watch his woods fill up with snow† â€Å"To stop without a farm house near/ Between the woods and frozen lake/ The darkest evening of the year. † â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake. â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,† (842-843). The description of the woods is seductive because of the rhyme scheme, AABA/BBCB/CCDC/DDDD. Robert Frost has made comments about the form of this poem, â€Å"a series of almost reckless commitments I feel good in having guarded it so. [It is]†¦my heavy duty poem to be examined for the rime pairs. † (Frost on Stopping by Woods N. D. ). The English language is not as rhyme friendly as other languages such as Italian or French. The English language is a melting pot of many different languages limiting the amount of words that rhyme.As John Ciardi says, â€Å"In ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ Frost took a long chance. He decided to rhyme not two lines, but three in each stanza. Not even Frost could have sustained that much rhyme in a long poem. † (Ciardi, How Does a Poem Mean? ). This allows the reader to be hypnotized by the rhythm Frost has created. By repeating the ‘o’ sound, ‘though’ also starts the series of rhymes that will soon get the better of the reader. For example this is seen clearly in the opening lines of the poem, â€Å"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/. † (842). As the reader begins to recognize the pattern of the poem it guides them into the same drowsy feeling as the narrator is experiencing. James G. Hepburn, who wrote â€Å"Robert Frost and His Critics,† says, â€Å"Each of the first three stanzas begins flatly; each rises, with the last line or two lines, towards the spell; but not until the end of the third stanza is the rise powerful, and not until the opening of the fourth and final stanza is the rise sustained rather than broken. So from the above lines and evidence we can interpret these lines as follows. The narrator is most likely returning home from some errand that took him far away from his home. He is riding his horse late at night or late day and has stumbled upon some beautiful scenery. This is when he decides to stop and take in everything that he is seeing. When the narrator first stopped in the woods he has a good idea of whose land this is, which is stated in the first two lines. Rueben A.Bower who wrote, â€Å"The Poetry of Robert Frost: Constellations of Intention† says, â€Å"The very tentative tone of the opening line lets us into the mood without quite sensing where it will lead, just as the ordinariness of ‘though’ at the end of the second line assures us that we are in the world. † Robert Frost did not start this poem with the magical whimsy of the woods but instead with the mood they contain (Hepburn 1962) â€Å"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/. (842). By doing this he allows the reader to have a better understanding of why the narrator would stop to look upon this beautiful scenery. As Hepburn says in his article, â€Å"Robert Frost and His Critics† â€Å"The mood that the poem induces in the reader nullifies his acceptance of the intention expressed by the traveler. The sum of the reader’s experience of the poem is different from the meaning of the traveler’s experience of the woods. Presumably the traveler goes home to supper, to his duties, and to the rest of his journey through life; but these things are not the poem. Frost made some comments on the factors mood plays in a poem, â€Å"†¦ the poet’s intention is of course a particular mood that w on’t be satisfied with anything less than its own fulfillment. † (Hepburn 1962). This poem isn’t a recreated experience but meant to be an experience in itself. This poem has some interesting symbolism in it takes us on a journey through a man’s life. When the narrator first stops, instead of questioning himself, he questions what the horse thinks, â€Å"My little horse must think it queer† (842).By questioning the horse, he is really questioning his own reasons, which people often do while they make life decisions or everyday decisions. The horse is also a symbol of time the horse is questioning his stopping and urges him to move on to prevent the further loss of time (Anonymous). When the narrator’s horse shakes his harness bells, he then becomes a symbol, as John Ciardi thinks, â€Å".. order of life that does not understand why a man stops in the winter middle of nowhere to watch snow come down. † The horse is the will power persis tent in the subconscious of a man.The horse urges him to get back to his business by the shake of his harness bells which is indirectly contrast the narrator who would like to stay in the woods. Even though his horse is urging him to be responsible he continues to be enticed by the soft lull of the woods just like the reader is. For example, â€Å"He gives his harness bells a shake/ To ask if there is some mistake. † (842). The sound of the horses harness bells is contrasting against the sounds of the woods described as, â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake. (843). This is the woods contradicting the symbolism of the horse making their presence relevant. In life there are often two main choices to be made. Similar to this poem the narrator can either stay in the woods or go back to his everyday life. The speaker is going ahead and his ‘sleep’ may be the symbol for the end of his life. The journey in this poem turns out to b e more complicated than the life of an average man. The darkness of the woods is symbolic of the ‘easy’ way out or the path people before him have taken.The wind and downy flakes also have a similar symbolism. While the flakes appear to be soft, they are also cold which is less forgiving. The reader and the narrator share all of the experiences together as the poem goes on. For example, the line â€Å"The darkest evening of the year. † (842) is a correlation between life and the obligations he is carrying. This line also adds an unbroken curve of rhythm. As Ruben A. Bower (1963) goes on to explain, it adds to the sense of moving into a spell-world.We note the linking rhymes that tie in with the first stanza. Different symbols in this poem though reveal that stop in the poem could be referring to death or the journey through life. In this phrase â€Å"Between the woods and frozen lake†, the wood becomes a symbol of life while the frozen lake signifies death . When the speaker reaches the woods, he finds a world offering perfect, quiet and solitude, existing side by side with the realization that there is also another world, a world of people and social obligation. Both worlds have a claim on the poet.He stops by the wood on this â€Å"darkest evening of the year† to watch them â€Å"fill up with snow†, and remains there so long that his â€Å"little horse† shakes his â€Å"harness bells† to ask if there is â€Å"some mistake† (842). That little horse’s action reminds him of the â€Å"promises† he has to keep and the miles he still has to travel. (843). The theme of this poem is a journey, and not simply a journey through the woods but through life itself. There is an expectant tone throughout the poem. The narrator stops for a brief time to meditate and realizes he needs to continue on his journey through the woods and his journey through life.This poem also has a â€Å"romantic† theme as well as subject. Again the speaker is returning home and stops to take in the beautiful scenery. As the urgency to move on becomes more apparent the narrator begins to regret that he must leave. The narrator is romanticizing what he is passing which is time and pleasure. â€Å"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. † (842-843). For example, the words â€Å"lovely† â€Å"snow† â€Å"lake† â€Å"evening† and â€Å"easy wind and downy flake† (840-843) are all romantic in nature.Also the way the narrator talks about nature makes the loving relationship he has with it a romantic notion. â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake. † (843). It is also seen in this line, â€Å"To watch his woods fill up with snow. / †¦ Between the woods and frozen lake/ The darkest evening of the year. † (842). As Jeffrey Meyers says, â€Å"The theme of â€Å"Stopping by Woods†Ã¢â‚¬â€œdespite Frost's disclaimer–is the temptation of death, even suicide, symbolized by the woods that are filling up with snow on the darkest evening of the year.The speaker is powerfully drawn to these woods and–like Hans Castorp in the â€Å"Snow' chapter of Mann's  Magic Mountain–wants to lie down and let the snow cover and bury him. The third quatrain, with its drowsy, dream-like line: â€Å"Of easy wind and downy flake,† opposes the horse's instinctive urge for home with the man's subconscious desire for death in the dark, snowy woods. The speaker says, â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,† but he resists their morbid attraction. † (Meyers 1996).The journey threw life and the temptations of death and the peace it may bring some individuals is the theme of this poem. Although some may not agree with this interpretation of Robert Frost â€Å"Sto pping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† like James G. Hepburn who thinks, â€Å"This poem is a tribute to the New England sense of duty.. † (Hepburn 1962). But as you have seen this poem is about a journey through life. The way the poem uses literary tactics lead us to this very specific interpretation. As Robert Frost once said, â€Å"A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. † (Frost on Stopping by Woods N. D. ). Robert Frost Robert Frost has been described as an ordinary man with a deep respect for nature, talking to ordinary people. To what extent do you agree with this view? Poetry is a literary medium which often resonates with the responder on a personal level, through the subject matter of the poem, and the techniques used to portray this. Robert Frost utilises many techniques to convey his respect for nature, which consequently makes much of his poetry relevant to the everyday person.The poems â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ and â€Å"The mending wall† strongly illuminate Frost’s reverence to nature and deal with such matter that allows Frost to speak to ordinary people. On the surface, â€Å"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening† deals with a seemingly unimportant event, of the poet stopping one winter evening, mesmerised by the snow and the wood. However, at a figurative level, the poem goes deeper dealing with the concept of the choices that people make in life. The poem is set in a rural area, with merely an implication of the city in â€Å"his house is in the village†.This setting choice as well as stanza 1, which tells of the poet stopping to â€Å"watch his woods fill up with snow†, creates a strong image of nature being a predominant feature of this poem. The first stanza also creates a contrast between the poet and the owner of the woods who is presumably a ‘sensible’ person staying warm in his house. This raises the question of why the poet has stopped in such cold weather. Hence, this contrast serves as a metaphor that provides a link back to the concept of the poem, as it may speak of his choice to be involved with life, rather than choosing ‘comfortable withdrawal’ [‘Poetry of Robert Frost’].The poem continues contrasting the poet with his horse, Frost personifying the latter in â€Å"My little horse must think it queer/ To stop without a farmhouse near†. This meta phor shows that even the persona acknowledges, through his horse, that others may not make sense of the choice he has made to continue his journey on the â€Å"darkest evening of the year†. However, the responder is able to get a sense of what the persona is so entranced by in the third stanza, where there is a beauty in the woods as the â€Å"The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake†.The assonance of the letter ‘o’ in this creates a soft, dream-like tone, which emphasises the poet’s captivation by the scenery. The final stanza expands on this, opening with â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep†. The use of the word â€Å"lovely† reinforces the beauty of the woods, but the alliteration of the letter ‘d’ creates a heavy tone which may indicate that they could be perilous. For the poet, these words could mean that for him the woods represent escapism and irrationality.Due the allure that the woods clearly have over the poet, he is faced with a choice at the end of the poem- to stay and enter the â€Å"woods† or to continue on his journey in life. He makes his choice clear in the final lines of the last stanza saying â€Å"But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep†. His choice is clear through the use of the word â€Å"but† and the repetition of the final two lines emphasises that it is ‘life and personal involvement that he chooses, rather than withdrawal and death’ [‘Poetry of Robert Frost’].Hence, Frost effectively juxtaposes the gentle attractiveness of the woods with the clear call to journey on and fulfil promises. Throughout this poem, Frost uses much of the imagery of the natural environment to ‘enhance the aural and visual impact of the poem’ [Common Poetry, Robert Frost], and deals with a concept that is faced ‘ordinary people’ everyday- th at of making a choice to go on in life even when it is so appealing to simply go into the â€Å"dark and deep†.Therefore, this poem illuminates Frosts’ respect for nature as well as his ability to speak to ordinary people. This ability is also conveyed in ‘Mending Wall’, a one stanza poem that explores Frost’s ideas about the barriers’ that exist in relationships. Literally, the poem is about two neighbours who disagree about the need of building a wall to separate their properties. However, when the responders’ delves deeper into the poem, it is clear that at a allegorical level the wall is a metaphor representing the barrier that exists in the neighbours’ friendship.The first eleven lines of the poem if rife with imagery that describes the dilapidation of the wall. The first line of the poem emphasises that â€Å"something† exists that â€Å"doesn’t love a wall†. This personification makes the â€Å"somet hing† seem human-like. The use of words such as â€Å"spills† and â€Å"makes gaps† convey an image of animate actions and create a vivid impression of the degradation of the wall. Nature, presented in the form of cold weather, frost and the activities of creatures, also seeks to destroy the wall.The idea that walls are unnatural and therefore nature abhors walls is portrayed in the phrase â€Å"makes gaps even two can pass abreast†, which metaphorically indicates that nature desires for man to walk side by side with no barrier between them. When the two meet to fix the wall, it is a metaphor that could be interpreted as the two repairing their friendship as â€Å"To each the boulders have fallen to each† which shows that faults in their relationship lie on behalf of them both.While they are mending the wall, a light-hearted tone is established. This is shown through the inclusion of the metaphor â€Å"spring is mischief in me† which shows th e neighbours having fun together in repairing the wall, creating a cheerful atmosphere. This creates an ironic feel to the poem, as although the beginning of the poem presented negativity to erecting the wall, mending the wall is allowing the neighbours to spend more time together and hence strengthening their communication and friendship.Despite this, the narrator continues to question the purpose of the wall. To portray this, there is a repetition of â€Å"something there is that doesn’t love a wall†, which emphasises that-like nature- the narrator wants the wall to be taken down. However, the neighbour who is described using the simile â€Å"like an old-stone savage† and thus could be a representation of society which is also rigid in its views, only replies with â€Å"Good fences make good neighbours†.There is a repetition of this statement throughout the poem, which effectively asserts the opinion that society adopts in regards to ‘barriersâ₠¬â„¢ between people: that although people can be close friends, for a successful relationship there will always be a barrier in between them, acting as a boundary that grants privacy and security. Like many of his other poems, Frost once again shows his respect for nature in this poem through his portrayal of it as a sort of body that only wills harmony and friendship among all.He also succeeds in speaking to ordinary people through his exploration of such a universal matter, that impacts upon each human’s life everyday- that of the perpetual metaphorical wall that is present in relationships. In conclusion, â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† and â€Å"Mending Wall† are poems that use nature to epitomise what the poet is trying to portray and deal with concepts that have a personal meaning to every single responder. Hence, it can be said that Frost indeed had a deep respect for nature and spoke to ordinary people.