Snowy Woods

This snowy scene was taken in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in Double Trouble State Park, which we visited often when we lived in NJ. It reminded me of a favorite poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; maybe it's also a favorite of yours.

Poet Robert Frost wrote Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening in 1922, two years before he won the first of his four Pulitzer Prizes. That happened in 1923, when this poem was  published in his New Hampshire volume.

Frost wrote the poem in June at his Vermont home. He had stayed up all night writing the longer poem, New Hampshire, and when finished, realized that it was morning. Stopping to watch the sunrise, he had the idea for this poem, writing about a snowy evening in several minutes and in summertime. 

Born in San Francisco, CA, Frost spent most of his years in New England. When asked to reveal the "hidden" meaning of his poems, he replied, "If I wanted you to know, I'd have told you in the poem."

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening has been used to eulogize notables, including the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. 

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. 

by Robert Frost