Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Meter

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Literary Devices Meter

Frost composed “Stopping by Woods” in iambic tetrameter, which means that each line consists of four iambic feet. (Recall that an iamb has one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word “be-tween.”) What’s most remarkable about the poem’s meter is its consistency. Frost maintains strict iambic tetrameter throughout the entire poem, with absolutely no deviation. As a representative example, consider the opening stanza (lines 1–4):

Whose woods / these are / I think / I know.
His house / is in / the vill- / age though;
He will / not see / me stopp- / ing here
To watch / his woods / fill up / with snow.

Every line here is perfectly regular. With no variations to slow the reader down, the poem proceeds smoothly and without interruption. Frost’s specific use of iambic tetrameter also contributes to the poem’s overall pace. Tetrameter lines tend to sound “faster” than, say, lines of iambic pentameter. One obvious reason is that four-foot lines are shorter than five-foot lines. But a more significant reason is that tetrameter lines, being even in their number of feet, have an intrinsic a sense of balance that produces a feeling of acceleration—not unlike a horse galloping along. On the whole, then, the strict regularity of the meter gives the poem a forward propulsion. This propulsion stands in contrast to the speaker’s desire to stop and rest. Like their horse, the meter pulls the speaker onward.

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