Robert Frost Poem

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.

Close ties to people hinders those who romanticize nature and want to fully immerse in it. In the celebrated poem by Robert frost, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening", the narrator stops while traveling through a secluded, forest far away from civilization and hears "easy wind and downy flakes", and notices that "the woods are lovely dark and deep, but [he has] promises to keep". The narrator wants to stay in woods even though he can clearly hear the "easy wind." That statement becomes questionable because one cannot hear winds that blow easily or softly. A wind along with “downy flakes” proclaims there a blizzard, something most shelter themselves from. Yet this harsh weather is not a deterrent for the narrator, for he calls the woods “lovely, dark and deep”. He secludes himself in the nature for he stops travels through it alone. There is no backup if there is a mistake and he freezes or hurts himself. In that creates part of the appeal. The lone stop in freezing wood shows the narrator’s ideology to be centered about harmony with nature. To be immersed without the pollution of society. The fact he obviously praises while he is in the middle of the worst of nature, shows that he has a romanticizes view of it. The reason of departure from this personal yet seemingly odd haven credits itself to “promises” to other people, not for concern for his own well being or any desire to leave nature. If those people were not there, he would have obviously continued to mull over the supposed beauty of nature untamed and wild.

In Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, there is a young adventurer named Ruess Everett who abandons all human contact, including his loving family, for long stretches of times and does dangerous activities such once when an on looker is “appalled by the seemingly reckless manner in which Everett moved around dangerous cliffs” (92). When someone does a potentially lethal activity such as “moving around dangerous cliffs” without a suicidal or deranged state of mind, it usually means that they are not truly considering the danger. Reckless means utterly unconcerned about the consequences of some action. This shows Ruess Everett had done so many dangerous activities and survived that he believes now that the percentages do not apply to him. He romanticizes the cliff side until no apparent danger remains, only the adventure. He does this alone as well, for he left his family behind. Family would have stopped reckless behavior such as this because they do not want to see their loved one hurt. Without them in tow Ruess is able to be with nature organically, without a safety device. Protection would make the interaction between him and the cliff face feel false to him. He wants the full experience of that cliff face, nothing in between him and it, not even people of safety have room. Thus people disrupt true connections with nature.

Posted by Abby Chernin