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.
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was written by American poet Robert Frost in 1922 and published in 1923, as part of his collection New Hampshire. The poem is told from the perspective of a traveler who stops to watch the snow fall in the forest, and in doing so reflects on both nature and society. Frost claimed to have written the poem in one sitting. Though this is likely apocryphal, it would have been particularly impressive due to the poem's formal skill: it is written in perfect iambic tetrameter and utilizes a tight-knit chain rhyme characteristic to a form called the Rubaiyat stanza.
Summary
The speaker thinks about who owns the woods that he or she is passing through, and is fairly sure of knowing the landowner. However, the owner's home is far away in the village, and thus he is physically incapable of seeing the speaker pause to watch the snow fall in the forest.
The speaker thinks his or her horse must find it strange to stop so far from any signs of civilization. Indeed, they are surrounded only by the forest and a frozen lake, on the longest night of the year.
The horse shakes the bells on its harness, as if asking if the speaker has made a mistake by stopping. The only other sound besides the ringing of these bells is that of the wind and falling snowflakes, which the speaker likens to the feathers of goose down.
The speaker finds the woods very alluring, drawn both to their darkness and how vast and all-encompassing they seem. However, the speaker has obligations to fulfill elsewhere. Thus, though he or she would like to stay and rest, the speaker knows there are many more miles to go before that will be possible.
Themes
Nature vs. Society
In “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the speaker describes stopping to watch the snow fall while riding a horse through the woods at night. While alone in the forest, the speaker reflects on the natural world and its implicit contrast with society. Though Frost’s poem resists a definitive interpretation, the natural world it depicts is at once “lovely” and overwhelming. The fact that it seemingly lures the speaker to linger in the dark and cold suggests that nature is both a tempting and a threatening force, a realm that resists people’s efforts to tame it while also offering respite from the demands of civilized life.
The poem presents the natural world as distinctly separate from human society. The poem begins with the speaker thinking about who owns the property he is passing through—“Whose woods these are I think I know”—yet it’s clear that there's no one there to actually stop the speaker from trespassing. The owner’s “house is in the village,” meaning “he will not see” the speaker. While this owner may think the woods belong to him, he can’t control who passes by “his” land any more than he can stop the woods from “fill[ing] up with snow.” The land owner’s absence and futility, in turn, suggest that the human impulse to dominate the natural world is misguided.
The complete lack of signs of civilization, meanwhile, further emphasizes the distance between society and nature. There are no farmhouses nearby, and the only sound apart from the “harness bells” of the speaker’s horse is that of the wind. Though the speaker acknowledges that, at least conceptually, he or she stands on someone else’s woods, the physical isolation indicates the impotence of conceptual structures like ownership in the first place. In other words, people can say they "own" land all they want, but that doesn't really mean anything when those people aren't around. Far from the sights and sounds of the village, the speaker stands alone “Between the woods and frozen lake” on the “darkest evening of the year.” Together all these details again present nature as a cold and foreboding space distinct from society.
At the same time, however, the woods are “lovely” enough that they tempt the speaker to stay awhile, complicating the idea of nature as an entirely unwelcoming place for human beings. Indeed, though the setting seems gloomy, the speaker also recounts the “sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake.” This language makes the setting seem calm and comforting. The speaker finds the wind “easy” or mellow and the snowflakes “downy,” like the soft feathers that fill a blanket or pillow. Finally, in the final stanza, the speaker definitively says, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.” This suggests the speaker’s particular interest in the solitude that the woods offers.
Though the speaker knows that he or she “has promises to keep”—suggesting certain societal demands that pull the speaker to continue—the woods are a tempting place to stop and rest. For a moment, the speaker is able to pause for no reason other than to simply watch the falling snow. However raw and cold, then, nature also allows for the kind of quiet reflection people may struggle to find amidst the stimulation of society.
Social Obligation vs. Personal Desire
Though the speaker is drawn to the woods and, the poem subtly suggests, would like to stay there longer to simply watch the falling snow, various responsibilities prevent any lingering. The speaker is torn between duty to others—those pesky “promises to keep”—and his or her wish to stay in the dark and lovely woods. The poem can thus be read as reflecting a broader conflict between social obligations and individualism.
This tension between responsibility and desire is clearest in the final stanza. Although “the woods are lovely,” the speaker has other things to which he or she must attend. This suggests that the speaker is only passing through the woods on some sort of business—which, in turn, helps explain how unusual it is that the speaker has stopped to gaze at the forest filling with snow. Indeed, the fact that the speaker’s horse must “think it queer”—even a “mistake”—that they’re stopping implies that the speaker’s world is typically guided by social interaction and regulations, making solitary, seemingly purposeless deeds especially odd. The speaker doesn’t seem to be the kind of person who wastes time or reneges on his promises. However much the speaker might like to stay in the “dark and deep” woods, then, he or she must continue on, once again prioritizing responsibility to others and social convention.
Of course, the speaker seems to show some ambivalence toward these social obligations. The speaker subtly juxtaposes his or her interest in the woods with regret about his or her duties to others: the woods are lovely, “but I have promises to keep.” The promises seem to be a troublesome reality that keeps the speaker from doing what he or she actually wants to do—that is, stay alone in the woods for a little while. Indeed, the specific language that the speaker uses to describe the woods suggests he or she isn’t quite ready to leave. They are “lovely, dark and deep,” implying the woods contain the possibility for respite from the comparatively bright and shallow world of human society. Social responsibilities thus inhibit the chance for meaningful reflection.
Additionally, the image of snow’s “downy flake” suggests that the speaker is as attracted to the woods as one might be to a comfortable bed. In fact, the speaker seems wearied by travel and social obligation, and the woods seem to represent his or her wish to rest. But this wish cannot be realized because of the oppressive “miles to go,” which must be traveled as a result of duty to others (i.e., in order to "keep" those "promises"). Thus, the final lines may suggest the speaker’s weariness both toward the physical journey that remains and the social rules that drive that very journey forward in the first place.
Ultimately, we don't know if the speaker satisfies his or her social duties or remains in the woods. On the one hand, the admittance of having “promises to keep” can be read as the speaker accepting that social obligations trump individual wishes. Yet it's also possible to read the final lines as the speaker’s continued hesitation; perhaps the speaker is thinking about the miles left to go but not yet doing anything about it, instead remaining torn between the tiresome duties of society and the desire for individual freedom that is manifested in the woods.
Hesitation and Choice
Throughout the poem, the speaker seems to be stuck in a space in between society’s obligations and nature’s offer of solitude and reflection. Though the speaker reflects on the possibilities offered by each, he or she is ultimately never able to choose between them. In fact, the speaker’s literal and figurative placement seems to suggest that choice itself might not even be possible, because societal rules and expectations restrict the speaker's free will. In other words, beyond exploring the competing pulls of responsibility and personal desire on the speaker, the poem also considers the nature—or mere possibility—of choice itself.
The speaker starts and ends the poem in a state of hesitation. In the first line, the speaker says, “Whose woods these are I think I know,” a statement which wavers between a sure declaration (“I know”) and doubt (“I think”). This may suggest that the central conflict of the poem will be the speaker’s battle with uncertainty. The physical setting of the poem, in which a speaker stops partway through a journey, mirrors this irresolution, finding the speaker neither at a destination nor a point of departure but rather somewhere in between.
The speaker also notably pauses “between the woods and frozen lake”—literally between two landmarks. On top of that, the speaker has stopped on the “darkest evening of the year.” If we understand this to mean the Winter Solstice, then the poem also occurs directly between two seasons, autumn and winter. Thus, the speaker is physically poised on the brink between a number of options, suggesting the possibility of choice between physical worlds, and, later in the poem, between duty to others and a personal wish to rest in solitude.
However, it's unclear in the end if the speaker chooses to fulfill his or her "promises" or merely accepts the obligation to do so as an incontrovertible fact of life; that is, whether he or she actively makes a choice to continue or accepts that there is no choice at all. Though the speaker seems to indicate in the end that he or she will continue on and keep his or her promises, this doesn’t seem to be a straightforward decision. In fact, it may not be a decision at all, but rather an embittered consent to the rules of societal life. The speaker may very well wish to stay in the “lovely” woods, but is ultimately unable to do so.
However, we can also read the final stanza as demonstrating that the speaker hasn't left the woods yet. Although he or she has obligations, there are “miles to go,” and the dreamy repetition of the final lines could suggest that there are either too many miles left to travel, or even that the speaker is slipping into sleep—effectively refusing to make a choice (or implicitly choosing to stay, depending on your interpretation).
Thus, it is possible to read the entire poem as embodying a moment of hesitation, wavering between two poles but never leaning toward one or the other. This would further complicate the outcome of the poem, resisting a definitive reading and suggesting that the tensions between society and nature, and between obligation and individualism, are never black-and-white, but constantly in a murky state of flux.
눈 내리는 저녁 숲가에 멈춰 서서
이 숲이 누구의 것인지 알 것 같아요.
그 사람 집은 마을에 있지만
그는 보지 못하리 나 여기 멈춰 서서
자신의 숲에 눈 쌓이는 풍경을 지켜보는걸.
내 조랑말은 나를 기이하게 여길 것 같아요.
근처에 농가라곤 하나 없는데
숲과 얼어붙은 호수 사이에서
연중 가장 캄캄한 이 저녁에 길을 멈추었으니.
말은 방울을 흔들어 댑니다.
무언가 잘못됐느냐고 묻기라도 하듯.
그 밖의 소리는 오직 가볍게 스쳐 가는
바람 소리, 부드러운 눈송이뿐.
숲은 아름답고, 어둡고, 깊습니다.
하지만 나에게는 지켜야 할 약속이 있고
잠들기 전에 가야 할 먼 길이 있습니다.
잠들기 전에 가야 할 먼 길이 있습니다.
20세기 미국의 대표적인 시인 로버트 프로스트(Robert Frost, 1874~1963)는 1922년 어느 호젓한 날 밤, 잘 알려진 詩 '눈오는 저녁 숲가에 서서'를 썼다. 그에게 시상이 바로 그때 떠올랐다. 로버트 프로스트는 개척자들의 땅인 샌프란시스코에서 태어났지만, 열 살 때까지 미국 북동부 농장에서 자랐다. 그 지역은 눈이 많이 오는 곳이었다. 어린 시절 전원의 자연 풍경과 농장 생활은 로버트 프로스트의 시에 많은 영향을 주었다. 그는 '눈오는 저녁 숲가에 서서'를 쓴 후 2년이 지나서, 4번이나 받았던 퓰리처상의 첫 번째 상을 받았다.
로버트 프로스트는 다양한 각도로 해석할 수 있는 간단한 시를 많이 쓴 것으로 유명하다. 또한, 그는 매일 일상에서 쓰는 통상적인 언어를 시어로 쓰길 좋아했다. 20세기 초 뉴잉글랜드의 전원의 삶을 사실적으로 묘사한 시를 즐겨 썼고 복잡하고 철학적인 주제를 일상적인 언어를 사용하여 시로 썼다. '눈오는 저녁 숲가에 서서'(Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening)는 1923년 출판되었으며, 많은 사람들이 암송하고 있는 너무나 잘 알려진 시다. 그러나 해석은 그렇게 간단하지 않을 수 있다.
겉으로 보면 이 시는 간단한 내용이다. 화자는 어느 눈 내리는 그해의 가장 어두운 저녁, 길을 가다가 숲가에 잠시 멈춘다. 밤이 긴 동짓날쯤 되었을까. 그는 고요한 침묵 속에서 자신을 둘러싼 주위의 아름다운 겨울 숲 풍경에 심취하게 되고 오래 머물고 싶은 유혹에 휩싸인다. 그러나 그날 밤 편안한 안식을 위하여 가야 할 상당한 거리의 여정이 남아 있음을 깨닫고 아쉽지만 그 숲을 떠나야만 한다는 내용이다.
로버트 프로스트의 가정에서의 삶은 슬픔과 좌절로 얼룩진 인생이었다. 그가 11살 때 아버지가 결핵으로 사망했고, 1900년 어머니는 암으로 세상을 떠났다. 그리고 여동생이 정신병원에 입원한 후 9년 만에 죽었다. 가족에게 정신병의 유전자가 흐르고 있었던 것 같다. 그와 어머니가 우울증에 시달렸고, 딸이 정신병원에 입원했으며, 유방암을 앓던 아내 역시 우울증에 시달리다 심장병으로 세상을 떠났다. 로버트 프로스트는 여섯 명의 자녀를 두었으나, 두 명의 자녀 외에는 자살과 콜레라로 자신보다 먼저 죽는 아픔을 겪었다.
이러한 인생의 고난 속에서 쓴 시 '눈오는 저녁 숲가에 서서' 가 죽음이나 자살과 관련된 상징적인 의미가 있느냐는 질문에 로버트 프로스트는 단연코 "No"라고 부인했다. 그리고 시의 해석은 모든 사람들이 각자의 입장에서 생각하기를 바랐다. 그러나 많은 사람들은 이 시가 어떤 사람의 죽음이나 꿈같은 이미지, 그리고 마지막 작별 인사를 하는 것으로 해석하기도 한다.
로버트 프로스트는 소리에 큰 관심을 가졌기에 종종 단어 그 자체보다도 더 의미를 지니는 소리에 대하여 이야기하기를 좋아했다. 그의 충고를 따른다면 우리는 이 시가 무엇을 의미하는지를 세밀하게 분석하기보다 목의 성대를 가다듬고 귀를 쫑긋 세워 보면 어떨까. 그리고 이 시를 낭송하며 읽는다면 마음속으로 어떤 고요한 음성을 듣게 될지도 모르기 때문이다.
현대인은 잠시라도 복잡한 일상에서 탈출하고 싶은 생각이 들 때가 많다. 여러 가지 형태로 각자가 짊어지고 있는 인생의 무거운 짐으로부터 자유롭게 해방되는 시간을 동경하기 때문이다. 시간을 내어 눈 내리는 겨울, 호젓한 숲길을 걸어보면 어떨까. 자연은 치유의 힘이 있기에 그 소리에 귀 기울이면 마음에 평화가 찾아올 것이다. 답장해야 할 문자가 오더라도 핸드폰을 끄고 잠시 뒤로 미룬 채 사색에 잠길 때 생각나는 시가 바로 로버트 프로스트의 '눈오는 저녁 숲가에 서서'다.
눈 내리는 숲, 말, 그리고 말을 타고 있는 사람이 있는 단순한 겨울 풍경에 지나지 않는다고 생각하는 사람으로부터, 마지막 두 줄을 읽을 때 알 수 없는 전율을 느끼는 사람까지 독자와 단어, 소리, 그리고 모든 사람이 느끼는 의미를 다양하게 담고 있는 것이 시다. 詩가 살아 있어 생명력을 유지하게 하는 것은 모호성이다. '눈 오는 저녁 숲가에 서서', 화자는 눈으로 덮인 아름다운 숲의 무한한 매력과 현재 시간에 대한 압박으로 인한 책임감 사이에서 미묘한 긴장감을 조성하고 있다.