One thing I like about poetry is that you can listen to it so many different ways. It is kind of like listening to a song that has been covered several times by different musicians. You can come to learn that sometimes it is no the song that moves you but the singer.
Robert Frost has this ability to write poems that you can just enjoy on the face of it.
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.
It is pretty in its own right. But if you listen a little bit differently it seems to be about a man who wants to commit suicide. The vision of snow, a dark and lonely wooded land all conjure up classic images of death. But more then death it is suicide he is alone no one will know where he is or what has happened to him he will be lost and all his problems could be lost to the sweep of easy wind and downy flake that could cover all his problems up. The horse knows something is wrong and is uneasy and behaves as a friend should and acts like "listen lets go we shouldn't stop here and you know it." The horse, perhaps his only friend, is urging him to move on. All of this seems dark, and it is but also again here is the last note to hear, he knows he wrong. While suicide is a possible answer it is not his answer. He can not just give up he can not just let this all pass away and he moves on down the road to finish what he has started. It is a hopeful message of people overcoming despair and moving on with their lives.
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