Analysis of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Analysis of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Diction (i.e. choice of vocabulary) The diction of "Stopping by Woods

on a Snowy Evening" is extremely simple. None of the vocabulary is

difficult or unusual, and most of the most of the words are short and

plain, for example 'woods', 'house', 'snow', 'horse'. None of the

descriptions, either of the setting, or the horse, is detailed or

elaborate: the horse is simply, 'little'; the lake is 'frozen' (but we

learn nothing else about it), and the only time more than one

adjective is used to described anything is when we are told that the

woods are: 'lovely, dark and deep'.

One major effect of such plain and simple diction is to give the poem

a fairy tale quality. This is because, in fairy tales, the settings

could be 'anywhere' and 'nowhere' in particular. Fairy tales tend to

avoid describing their settings in great detail so that readers from

any country and culture can identify with them, and can recognize and

respond to the 'universe' significance of the situations in the tales.

Verb Tenses Another crucial aspect of the diction in "Stopping by

Woods on a Snowy Evening" is the fact that the entire poem is spoken

in the present tense. For example, line 1: 'Whose woods these are I

think I know'. This choice of tense has two important and powerful

effects on the impact and meaning of the poem:

· Continuous use of the present tense creates a strong sense of

vividness and immediacy. This is because it seems as if the speaker is

reporting events 'live' and as they happen. For example, 'My horse

gives his harness bells a shake'.

· The second important effect of the use of only the...

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...in terms of sound, the only

thing which prevented each stanza being completely isolated was that

each one had an 'odd' third line which did not rhyme with every other

line in the same stanza, but introduced the rhyme in the next stanza

instead.

But in stanza 4: For the first - and only - time every line rhymes:

'deep', 'keep', 'sleep', 'sleep'. The fact that every line rhymes in

the final stanza gives a finality to the poem which has come to an

end. The purpose is quite obvious: the poet has come to the end of his

poem but what is more important is that although he deeply regrets

that he must move on (because he has a promise to keep), he still has

a long way to go before he can break for sleep. Though he would love

to take his time to enjoy the night, he must, however, gather his

meandering thoughts and move on.