Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Motifs

Monosyllabic versus Disyllabic Words

A close analysis of the language in “Stopping by Woods” reveals that the poem consists mainly of monosyllabic words, with a few disyllabic words mixed in. The prevalence of monosyllabic words contributes to the poem’s aura of simplicity. Frost uses ordinary words to develop an impression of ease and straightforwardness. Given the dominance of monosyllables, the occasional appearance of disyllabic words comes as a slight surprise. As an example, consider the opening stanza (lines 1–4):

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.

All but two of the words in this stanza are monosyllabic. Curiously, the two disyllabic words present here—village and stopping—both have semantic associations that are arguably at odds with the speaker’s desire for tranquility and rest. The village is associated with the social world, from which the speaker wishes to take refuge. The notion of stopping is a bit more complicated. Even though the speaker longs to stop, the word itself has a negating force: to stop means not to continue doing something. This trend continues in the rest of the poem. One portion of the disyllabic words is associated with society (“village,” “farmhouse,” “harness” [lines 2, 6, and 9]). The other portion is associated with negation or dwindling (“stopping,” “little,” “darkest,” “evening,” “mistake” [lines 3, 5, 8, 8, and 10]). Significantly, the poem has only one three-syllable word: “promises” (line 14).

Hesitations

Hesitations are a key characteristic of both the speaker and the poem’s overall structure. As if further to highlight the importance of these hesitations, Frost incorporates language that subtly reflects hesitation on a grammatical level. The poem’s opening line incorporates just such a grammatical hesitation: “Whose woods these are I think I know.” At first glance, the speaker seems state authoritatively that they know who the owner of the woods is. But note the slight hesitation registered in the phrase, “I think I know.” The speaker isn’t entirely sure. Another example of hesitating language appears when the speaker notices their horse acting strangely (lines 5–6):

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near

Once again, the speaker speaks with seeming authority that’s nonetheless marked by subtle hesitation: their horse must think it queer. The repetition in the final two lines registers a different kind of hesitation: not grammatical but rhetorical. When the speaker says “And miles to go before I sleep” for the first time (line 15), they are simply recognizing their obligation to keep going. But when the speaker says the same line a second time (line 16), it’s as if they are beginning to feel daunted by all those “miles,” and their desire to stay starts to reassert itself.