Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Frost)

Thanks to Cara at Ooh... Books! for another week of poetry celebration! Stop by her blog to see what poetry others have got for us this week. I've picked a poem this week that many, many people already know, but it's definitely worth celebrating and highlighting. Aaaand... as I am linking this entry, I see that Cara and I are on the same wavelength. Different entries, same poem, that's okay, right?

This is one of my favourite snowy poems, and my favourite Robert Frost poem, which is saying a fair bit. It's another one my mother has memorized and would often quote to us, and we had the Susan Jeffers' illustrated book. I think her illustrations are part and parcel of how I feel about this poem -- she has captured the muted feeling of a snowy woods in the evening absolutely perfectly.


Do try to find this book if you haven't seen it. It's absolutely worth it, and a marvellous example of illustrated poetry. The poem itself is so beautiful it never fails to make my throat tight.


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

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.

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.