Are there any figures of speech in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"?

cody1212,

The speaker of Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is in familiar territory; he is riding his sleigh during an evening snowfall and has stopped to watch the woods “fill up with snow.”

There is nothing particularly noteworthy in the speaker’s decision to stop, for falling snow is lovely to watch, but, the stopping may signify a reluctance to move forward, a fear of the future. The speaker apparently feels embarrassed by the stopping, for he notes that his “little horse” must be taking exception to the action. The speaker feels we must be busy every second of our lives. In addition, the speaker has a sense of invading someone else’s property, for the “though” of line 2 suggests that he would not stop if the owner were present to observe him.

In the last stanza, the alternatives are brought into sharp contrast: the woods vs. the promises and the miles. The speaker opts for responsibility, involvement, and action; all this is embodied in the single word “but” in line 14.

Technically, the poem lends itself to analysis of sound and rhyme. Alliteration on the s and w sounds (lines 11–12) reinforces the silence and the sweep of the wind. The sounds are comforting and attractive; they seemingly invite withdrawal. The rhyme scheme is a a b a, b b c b, c c d c, d d d d, and it links or interlocks each stanza with the next. To end the poem, Frost uses the same rhyming sound throughout the last stanza and repeats the last line.