Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Symbols

The Woods

For the poem’s speaker, the woods stand in symbolic opposition to the social responsibilities that otherwise call them away from their desire for rest and tranquility. As someone with “promises to keep” (line 14) in some other place, the speaker feels the pull of obligation, which encroaches on their desire to stay. In contrast to the social ties of obligation established by the “promises” they’ve made, the woods offer the allure of total individual freedom. Alone by the woods, the speaker feels far away from everything and able to do anything they want. In this sense, the woods symbolize the thrill of personal agency. Yet the speaker doesn’t simply regard the woods as a kind of personal playground. Instead, they regard the woods with an almost mystical reverence. When they describe the woods as “lovely, dark and deep” (line 13), the speaker implicitly acknowledges a sense of mystery and danger that abides there. The woods are entrancing, yet they are also menacing; they at once invite the speaker in, yet also portend the possibility of getting lost. In this way, the woods also symbolize the lure of disappearance and even death.

Snow

Other than the woods, the most central image in Frost’s poem is the falling snow that blankets the winter landscape. The snow powerfully symbolizes the tranquility and restfulness for which the speaker longs. The speaker has paused specifically to observe the snowfall, which they suggest when they note that the landowner “will not see me stopping here / To watch his woods fill up with snow” (lines 3–4). Anyone who has watched snow falling in winter will understand the simple beauty of this image. Ordinary time is suspended by snowflakes’ slow descent through the air, and as they accumulate on the ground, their reflective whiteness glows faintly in the winter darkness. Snow also has the effect of dampening sound, which the speaker acknowledges when they remark on the prevailing sense of quiet (lines 11–12):

The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

But in addition to reflecting the speaker’s desire for tranquility and rest, the snow also has a subtle equalizing power. The speaker recognizes that the woods are in fact private property. Yet regardless of who owns them, the snow falls on the woods just as it falls on everything else. This equalizing effect implicitly authorizes the speaker’s desire to view—and perhaps even enter—the woods.

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