Comparsion of Robert Frost´s Stopping by Woods in a Snowy Evening and Thylias Mass´ Interpretation of a Poem by Frost

A cluster of poems occurs when one or two additional poems are written to compare the way the reader should interpret the original poem based on the second, and potentially the third author’s usage of certain literary devices. Since the second poem, or in the case of three poems, since the second and third poems, are responses to the original poem, the original poem is often written first. An example of a cluster would be Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and Thylias Moss’ “Interpretation of a Poem by Frost.” Frost’s usage of voice and tone, allows the reader to interpret the poem in a completely different manner than the way Thylias Moss interprets it and suggests the reader interpret it using voice, tone, argument, and cultural and historical references.

The voice of the speaker in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” is that of an individual that is stressed out or overwhelmed. He or she just needs to take a mental break from everything and, “stop by the words/to watch [them] fill with snow.” The reader knows that this person needs to take this mental break based upon how long they stay there. He or she stays in the woods so long that their horse “give his harness bells a shake/to ask if there is some mistake.” In other words, the horse is confused; here he stands in these woods “without a farmhouse near [and] the only other sound [he hears, aside from his own bells, are,] the sweep of easy wind and [a] downy flake.” This sense of being overwhelmed, and needing to take a mental break in order to remain sane, is something any reader can relate to, whether they have had a stressful day at work, a parent is using the poem as an example to show a child who has had a temper tantrum that they are being puni...

... middle of paper ...

...ws in effect in the United States from the 1870’s to the 1960’s that segregated African Americans from Caucasians, made it clear that the woods the speaker was referring to were only supposed to be traveled by Caucasians and African Americans knew that not having a fence up did not excuse them from entering into the woods. These restrictions are also what made the speaker in Moss’ poem bitter, angry, filled with hate and jealous. She was bitter because she was being unfairly treated solely based on something that was beyond her control, the color of her skin tone, and this bitterness, translated into anger and hatred towards Caucasians and those feelings, translated into jealously. She was jealous of the Caucasians because she wanted nothing more than to be treated with respect, like she mattered, like she was a human being with feelings, irrespective of her race.