Lyrical Thursdays: Stopping by Woods

As mentioned last week, the poem I chose to share this week is also by Robert Frost, and also has to do with snow.  Neither of Frost's poems are really only about snow, though they both deal with it in different ways.  He leaves his poems up for a certain amount of interpretation, and we can infer what we will from each.  Everyone brings different experiences to a poem or a book or a work of art, and will take away something different than anyone else.

Here is the poem:

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.

In one of my favorite books, A Girl Named Zippy, a memoir by Haven Kimmel, Kimmel (alias Zippy) addresses the power of words, and specifically how Frost's poem affected her as a child:

               Mrs. Denver made us memorize and recite poetry... The first poem I chose was

         Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening," and when I stood up to recite 

         it I got through it marvelously, right up until the last line, "and miles to go before

         I sleep," repeats itself, and then I got intensely moved and just had to stand there 

         with my throat aching while thirty-seven unsympathetic eyes stared at me.  Finally

         I just ran over to my desk and put my head down, and Mrs. Denver walked over

         behind my desk and put her hand on my shoulder.  The rest of the room stayed 

         blisteringly silent.

                "Why does he do that?" I asked in a tight, mad voice, meaning why does he 

         repeat the last line in that devilish way.

                "Well, dear, I'm sure it has something to do with poetry, but I don't know what.

          Why don't you ask your mother."  She patted my shoulder for a second, and then 

          asked someone to stand up and repeat their little James Whitcomb Riley gem, and

          the attention was off me for a while but I felt disgruntled all day.

                 When I got home I went straight to my mom and asked just what the heck     

          Robert Frost was up to...

                 I told her about how mad I was about "Stopping by Woods," and told her what

          Mrs. Denver had said about poetry, and the mystery of the repeating lines.

                 Mom thought for a moment about how to explain it.  "The best answer I can give

          is that poetry is all about the effect it has on a reader, and Robert Frost was very,

          very good at that.  If you're asking what it means that the line is repeated, I'd have

          to say I don't know.  It's stylistic.  But the effect is pretty clear."

                   "Doggone right the effect is pretty clear!  The effect is I looked like an idiot in

          front of my whole class and I'm never reading poetry again unless it's by James 

          Whitcomb Riley!"  And I went storming out of the house to try and shake off the 

          injury done to me with words.

I love that last line!!  That's the effect this poem (and many others) has had on me.

One last thing I wanted to share: Eric Whitacre, a contemporary composer, composed a song to go to the words in Frost's poem.  He could not secure the rights to use the Frost poem, so asked a friend of his to write new words for the music he had already written.  He wanted to make sure the new lyrics had the power of Frost's, including the repetition of "sleep," which is also the name of the piece.  It's a beautiful song, made all the more so because it is sung by a "Virtual Choir," made up of thousands of people from dozens of countries.  Enjoy!