It’s been years since I memorized an entire poem, but “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost is one I can still recite. When I read that a newly discovered draft of the poem is up for auction, I decided to choose it for my next “Poetry in Context” post.
Let’s start with the poem. (Can you see how the short stanzas with consistent rhyme and rhythm make it easy to memorize?)
The Poem
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.
Context
I learned about the inspiration for the poem from the auction listing. Frost once said that “‘Stopping by Woods’ was his favourite poem because it arose from a particularly bleak Christmas and the ‘darkest evening of the year’ just before it. Having no money, Frost loaded the wagon with farm produce and went to town, but he found no buyers and returned empty-handed, without even small gifts for the children. He felt he had failed his family, and rounding a bend in the road, by woods, and quite near his house, the horse, who seemed to understand his mood, and who had already been given the reins, slowed and stopped, letting Frost have a good cry.” (David Hamilton, ʻThe Echoes of Frost’s Woods’, in Road Not Taken: Rereading Robert Frost, edited by Earl J. Wilcox and Jonathan N. Barron, 2000, p.127).
The listing goes on, “This incident, one assumes, occurred during Frost’s years of poverty before he sailed for England in 1912, where he found a measure of fame and, if not a fortune, at least a sufficiency.”
Manuscripts
The earliest draft of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is held by Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts, where Frost taught at Amherst College for many years. The Robert Frost Collection began during his lifetime, and Frost himself donated manuscripts and signed copies of his works. The item description reads, “Manuscript lacks the first stanza and contains a number of corrections and additions, probably an early draft.” It is thought to date to July, 1922.
The manuscript now up for auction was included in a letter Frost wrote to his friend Jack Haines, dated January 28. 1923. Frost wrote, “‘I shall be sending you some poetry in MS again before long’, adding by way of afterthought ‘I believe I’ll copy a bit here and now.'” The “bit” he copied was “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” with all four stanzas, word for word as it was later published.
Interestingly the letter containing the poem was never copied for Robert Frost’s biographer, so it has remained unknown until now, a find like the ones I love to read about.
Publication
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was published in The New Republic on March 7, 1923. It subsequently appreared in the collection New Hampshire, published November 15 of the same year.
According to the auction listing, “Frost is known to have copied out the poem for admirers in later life.” One of these copies is held by the Library of Congress.
