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Logan Kraus

Prof. Belyi

03M Comp 2

8 April 2018

Natures Symbol in Poems

Robert Frost is one poet that uses imagery in beautiful ways to develop his poems. The

use of the imagery of nature enhances the theme of his poems and brings in a stronger meaning

and message. The two poems by him that have been choose to show his genius in using nature as

a symbol are, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy evening,” and “The Road Not Take.”. These b

two poems are great examples of happy and changes times in ones and as well as times that

could be dark and depressing. In both of the poems Frost uses nature as imagery to covey his

message.

The poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” has a theme that is depression and

as if the character of the poem is going through a troublesome time in their life. The line from the

poem representing this is “The darkest evening of the year” (Frost 505). This can be taken as the

darkest time in one’s life or interpreted as a bad event happing. They both can be described as a

dark time, but this is the darkest evening so it would have to be the worst evening of the

characters life.

There is another way of interpreting the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

and that is as the theme of suicide. In the poem frost states “The woods are lovely, dark, and

deep” (505). The imagery is of the woods being dark and deep but the character calls them lovely

that does not mix. In that since is one can find comfort in the darkness in his life and is

contemplating to end it all but decides not to in these lines here “But I have promises to keep,
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And miles to go before I sleep And miles to go before I sleep” (Frost 505). These go to show that

he still has things he needs to accomplish or wants to and that he has years to go before he dies.

Where in the since of the poem “miles” refers to years and “I sleep” is referring to death.

The next poem is also by Frost and is called “The Road Not Taken” the theme of this

poem is about choosing a path in your life and how one road leads to another. Frost shows this

by the lines “grassy and wanted wear” (504) “leaves no step had trodden black” (505) those

combined with “yet knowing how way leads to way I doubted I shall ever come back” (505).

That all gives off the since of hoe the path less taken is the one that wants wear and not many

people haven taken the same path as well at the same time one wont return to their starting point

because one decision leads to another which creates more paths. All of that was shown by the

poet using imagery.

Being able to use imagery to convey a central idea is key for being a poet. Frost does a

tremendous job of doing so by using the imagery of nature to show that people have to choose a

path at a cross roads or how people can be depressed in their life and find comfort in the

darkness. Overall Frosts poems are so simple and so complex at the same time and can give us a

deeper underlying meaning through imagery in nature.

Word Count: 579

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Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Literature A Portable Anthology

Fourth Edition, edited by Janet E. Gardner, et al., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 505

--- “The Road Not Taken.” Literature A Portable Anthology Fourth Edition, edited by Janet E.

Gardner, et al., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 504-05