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Hollingshead
Hannah G. Hollingshead
Professor Karen Wilson
English 1110
8 November 2017
In Between the Lines with Robert Frost
There are many variations within the ways that present and past poets have written poems. Some readers may not grasp the whole concept that the poet is trying to get across when they read their works. For instance, some may see Robert Frost’s poems very simple, but others may interpret them in way more depth. When one reads Frost’s poems they need to read in between the lines to get the whole concept that he is trying to put across to them. This can be one of the hardest tasks for a reader to accomplish when analyzing poetry.
For instance, in 1923, Robert Frost wrote a poem by the name of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” This poem in particular is an example of what is meant by reading in between the lines. In this poem, Frost wrote about a person trespassing in a man’s woods that lives in the village. The person trespassing only stops for a few moments to watch the woods fill up with snow. By doing this, it allows the person to escape the world for a moment or “He may go into the woods and let the darkness and the snow swallow him from the world of the beast and man.” (DeFusco 96) The person’s horse “…gives his harness bells a shake/ To ask if there is some mistake.” (Lines 9-10) These two lines signify that this is unusual for the horse’s rider to take a break. At the end of the poem, Frost wrote “But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep.” (Lines 14-16) At this point in the poem, the reader needs to be reading in between the lines. If he or she is not they will miss the concept that Frost is trying to get across. By analyzing the last two lines of the poem, the reader would be able to distinguish that those two lines mean something along the lines of death. If Frost was to only put line fifteen in the poem and exempt line sixteen, the reader may have interpreted that the person trespassing in the woods just simply has a long travel home and gets to rest once they reach their destination. With the last two lines of the poem, Frost is trying to emphasize that the person has a long life ahead of him before he dies. Within that time the person has promises to fulfill also. In the same aspect, Frost also signifies death throughout this entire poem, but he does not actually come out and say it. Through his symbolism, the reader has to infer that is what Frost is meaning in his poem.
Furthermore, in the p...
