Robert Frost: Stopping by Desert Places

No, I haven't gotten the title wrong.  I just conflated the titles of two of Robert Frost's poems:  "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "Desert Places."  I find that juxtaposing two different  poems can give me some ideas about one or both that I might never have seen by looking at them separately. 



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.


Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less--
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express

They cannot not scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.


Some obvious similarities are that they have four stanzas of four lines each.  However, the rhyme pattern is different.  In "Stopping," the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme, while the third line provides a link to the next stanza (aaba, bbcb, and ccdc) until the last stanza in which all four lines rhyme, including the famous doubled last two lines--dddd.

In "Desert Places,"  Frost has also rhymed the first, second, and fourth lines, but the third line does not provide a link to the next stanza.  Moreover,  the fourth stanza does follow the pattern of the first three stanzas:  aaba, ccdc, eefe, and gghg.

Both poems are set in winter and are located in rural settings.  Both focus on snow and the attitude of the person viewing the snow covered landscape.  However, it seems, to me anyway, that the attitudes of the poet/narrator differ considerably in them.



Stopping By Woods:  First Stanza

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.



Desert Places:  First Stanza
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.


In both poems, the narrator is out in the countryside--either in the woods or by a field.  Snow is falling in both, but the mood differs considerably.  In "Stopping" the narrator has stopped in a forested area, supposedly to watch the snow fall.  But, he concerns himself with something quite different than snow.  The owner lives in the village and won't see him here.  He stresses that he is alone out here.  The question, for me, anyway, is why is this an issue, important enough to make it the central point of this introductory stanza.

The first stanza of "Desert Places"  is quite different:  Frost concentrates on the physical scene before him.  It seems to be a far less pleasant place than the woods in "Stopping."  The snow falls and darkness is coming on, fast.  This seems to bother him, as if he doesn't want to be out at night when it's snowing.  The snow covers everything but "a few weeds and stubble."  This does not appear to be an attractive view.  The second "fast" in the first line--does that refer to the "night" or to him as he hurries past the "weeds and stubble." There is no thought here of stopping to watch the snow fall, as we find in "Stopping.



Stopping by Woods--second stanza

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.



Desert Places--second stanza

The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.


He imagines, in the second stanza, what his horse must be thinking, but of course, it is really what he is thinking at this moment.  There's something strange here about stopping in away from any human habitation, with only a frozen lake and woods around him.  It is also strange that he calls this the darkest evening of the year.  First, how does he know it is the darkest of the year?  Second, the snow is falling and snow reflects ambient light, so it is actually much lighter than if it wasn't snowing.  Perhaps the "darkest evening" refers to an internal state, rather than the actual condition around him.

While the second stanza of "Desert Places" also reflects an internal state of the narrator, the tone again is very different.  Instead of being connected in some way to his horse, he is now completely isolated from everything about him.  The woods belong to something else.  Even his perception of the animals about him is distorted by his isolation.  The animals 's lairs are seen as smothering them, yet in reality the lairs are protecting the animals from the snow and cold.  Depressed, he transforms the life-preserving lairs into the graves of  "smothered" animals.

Whatever life he may possess seems gone, for he is so "absent-spirited" that the loneliness he perceives about him doesn't even notice him.  He is a non-entity, a void that is ignored even by a scene he sees as a graveyard. He is neither there nor not-there.



"Stopping by Woods"--third stanza

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.


"Desert Places"--third stanza

And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less--
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express


In "Stopping" he again imagines what his horse might be thinking, but it is he who really questions his decision to stop here.  The mood here is questioning but not bleak.  He is accompanied by his horse who communicates with him, and his natural surroundings are pleasant.  I think the last two lines of this stanza are the most beautiful in the poem:
                  The only other sound's the sweep
                  Of easy wind and downy flake. 

Each time I read this poem I find myself slowing down when I get to "sweep" and drag out "easy wind" and "downy flake."


Contrast this with the third stanza in "Desert Places."  "Lonely" appears twice, and "loneliness" once.  The snow is "a blanker whiteness of benighted snow" that possesses "no expression" and "nothing to express."  It is the silence of nothingness, not that of "an easy wind and downy flake."  Moreover, that loneliness will get worse:

And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less--

To call this a bleak stanza would be an understatement.   A loneliness that can only get worse and the silence of nothingness provide a stark contrast to the third stanza of  "Stopping."  But there still is a glimmer of hope for the loneliness will get worse "ere it will be less."




"Stopping by Woods"--fourth stanza

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.


"Desert Places"--fourth stanza

They cannot not scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

While my interpretation of the poem differs from the commonly accepted interpretation (I think he is contemplating suicide), the fourth stanza clearly suggests that some decision has been made.  He decides that it isn't time to sleep (sleep frequently is a euphemism for death, not only in poetry but among many people) because he has tasks to perform and "miles to go before I sleep."  I think it is significant that the last two lines are the same.  Perhaps some doubt still remains, and he needs to repeat it to convince himself.  I wonder if this stanza is perhaps one of the most memorized stanzas of any of Frost's poems.  I know I knew it by heart long before I had memorized the entire poem.

Overall I feel that this is an optimistic stanza, and therefore an optimistic poem, for he has decided to go on.  There are still things to do and promises to keep before it's time to sleep.

Compare this to the fourth stanza of "Desert Places."  While the third stanza does suggest hope

"And lonely as it is that loneliness/Will be more lonely ere it will be less--"

the fourth stanza does not carry that hope forward and end optimistically as does the fourth stanza of  "Stopping."    The despair and desolation he feels is inside him.  Frost draws a contrast here between himself and Blaise Pascal, the 17th century mathematician and philosopher, who once wrote  "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces [the heavens] terrifies me."  Frost remarks that those spaces don't frighten him because he has those desert places so much closer than outer space.

Now, forget what I've just written, go back to the top, and read and enjoy both poems.

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.

Some Poetical Cats

A short time ago, I came across a small book. It was Henry Beard's Poetry For Cats. No, it's not a book with poems about cats. The title is somewhat misleading. It is, says Henry Beard, a collection of poems by cats. Even a quick glance through the book will show that the themes of the poems are those one might well suspect would be of most interest to cats: mice, rats, dogs, birds, vets .

Moreover, these are poems written by cats who have had some connection with well-known human poets. This small volume should be of interest to those scholars who love teasing out influences among writers: A influenced B who influenced C who influenced D who had no influence on anybody at anytime. A careful perusal of the poems by humans and those by cats who lived with the human poets could possibly, I think, show some similarities between them. As to the direction of the influence, whether the human poet influenced the feline poet or vice-versa, I shall leave it to the experts to figure out.


Here is a well-known poem by the human poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Her cat had a slightly different version:

To A Vase

How do I break thee! Let me count the ways.
I break thee if thou art at any height
My paw can reach, when, smarting from some slight,
I sulk, or have one of my crazy days.
I break thee with an accidental graze
Or twitch of tail, if I should take a fright.
I break thee out of pure and simple spite
The way I broke the jar of mayonnaise.
I break thee if a bug upon thee sits.
I break thee if I'm in a playful mood,
And then I wrestle with the shiny bits.
I break thee if I do not like my food.
And if someone thy shards together fits,
I break thee once again when thou are glued.



Or one by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens



William's cat wrote the following:

so much depends
upon

a yellow gold
fish

washed down with bowl
water

inside the white
kitten





And one last example, one of my favorites, Robert Frost's


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.



And Frost's poetical cat penned the following:

Sitting by the Fire on a Snowy Evening

Whose chair this is by now I know.
He's somewhere in the forest though;
He will not see me sitting here
A place I'm not supposed to go.

He really is a little queer
To leave his fire's cozy cheer
And ride out by the frozen lake
The coldest evening of the year.

To love the snow it takes a flake:
The chill that makes your footpads ache,
The drifts too high to lurk or creep,
The icicles that drip and break.

His chair is comfy, soft and deep.
But I have got an urge to leap.
And mice to catch before I sleep.
And mice to catch before I sleep.




Others in the book are "Grendel' s Dog" by an anonymous cat (trans. from Old English by the Editor's Cat)


"Brave Beocat,_____ brood-kit of Ecgthmeow,

Hearth-pet of Hrothgar_____ in whose high halls

He mauled without mercy_____ many fat mice,"




Besides the ones just quoted are cat friends of Chaucer, Donne, Blake, Milton, and of course, Shakespeare, along with many others.

If you wish to see variants of some well-known poems, perhaps some of your favorites, from a feline POV, I can recommend this book.

Henry Beard
Poetry for Cats
Villard Books, a division of Random House