Page 5 "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Read "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost below. Then, consider  the following sample annotation of this poem .

The italicized brackets are intended simply to guide your understanding of the annotation, and are not required in your work.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening      Robert Frost (1874-1963) Whose woods these are I think I know  a His house is in the village though;        a He will not see me stopping here         b To watch his woods fill up with snow.   a 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.

• The poet is driving his horse home one night. He stops to watch the snow fall in the woods. I see this as an escape from a busy life. (author's purpose)
  

• Escapes can be watching a movie, playing video games, or reading. (connection)
  

• queer: strange, confusing; it also means suspicious, or shady  (unfamiliar word)
  

• What does the "darkest evening of the year" mean? Is it literally December 21st, or did something unfortunate happen? Is something deceitful going on? Something he doesn't want his neighbour to see? (questions)
  
• The horse shakes his harness bells: Perhaps he thinks it's a mistake to stop. (interpretation)
  
• Perhaps the horse is impatient because it wants to rest or perhaps it is a workaholic horse. (interpretation)
  
• "Miles to go before I sleep".  Perhaps the speaker has a hard task to complete before bed.  The repetition of the lines makes him sound tired.  (sound device)
  

• It seems like the speaker is mesmerized by the falling snow - as if he could stay and watch forever the beautiful scene he has encountered. (interpretation)
  
• He reminds himself that he has too many things to do to just sit and watch snow fall, no matter how beautiful it is. (interpretation)