Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

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.

- Robert Frost

This is my favorite poem of all time. I think the reason I love this poem so much is because I can relate to it more than any other poem I have ever read. Unlike Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, this poem is much more subtle in its explanation of severe depression. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton but their poetry is more blunt, since it is confessional poetry. Frost uses delicate metaphors to explain a very dark subject. The narrator is describing a lonely and quiet place away from the world, where he could just fall asleep in the snow and allow himself to die. He describes the snowy, dark forest as a beautiful place of eternal rest when he says: "the woods are lovely, dark and deep." But after allowing himself to exercise this thought of giving up on life he immediately realizes that he has things that he has not finished on the earthly plane, when he says: "But I have have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep." The repetition of this last line is probably the most powerful technique used in this poem. It shows that the narrator needs to repeat this line to convince himself not to commit suicide. He is really in a state of mind to give up on his life but he also knows that there are people depending on him. This poem definitely alludes to the thought process of a suicidal, severely depressed individual.

Here is a website that contains a very large collection of Robert Frost poems.
http://www.ketzle.com/frost/