TPCASTT for “Desert Places”
Title: The poem will be about desert, and the desert may symbolize something in the speaker’s life.
Paraphrase:
Stanza 1: The speaker is standing by a field that he had considered crossing through, and as the sky begins to darken he watches snow fall. He notices that the field is covered in a blanket of snow except for patches here and there that have yet to be covered.
Stanza 2: The speaker notices that a certain loneliness seems to embody the field and the animals who live there, but he feels that his spirit is not present with the spirit of the field and animals, so he is included in this blanket of loneliness by accident.
Stanza 3: The speaker reflects that the loneliness of this place will only grow as night comes and the snow seems to be even whiter, and starker than before. It will seem as if there is an absence of life there.
Stanza 4: The speaker claims that the world and the universe cannot make him afraid due to their vastness. He claims that within himself are desert spaces vast enough to scare him without even considering the spaces outside of himself.
Connotation: See my annotations and then my analysis below.
First stanza:
Alliteration: ‘f’ is repeated in the first line to emphasize the suddenness and rapidity of the falling snow and the coming of night. It also contributes to a tranquil mood and meditative tone.
“Smooth in snow”—the repeated ‘s’ emphasizes the total covering of this field in snow and contributes to the meditative tone.
Imagery: “a few weeds and stubble showing last”—this reader realizes that most of the field is already covered, and what is not yet covered will be soon, so that the field will be completely buried. The image creates the sense of a vast blanket of snow, covering everything until it no longer resembles the self it once was.
Second stanza:
Diction: smothered—denotation is completely covered. While the reader might infer that the speaker means the animals lairs are smothered in snow, the speaker may also mean they are smothered in loneliness.
Smother also denotes death by suffocation.

TPCASTT for “Desert Places”
Absent-spirited--this compound adjective connotes depression and melancholy. The speaker is not necessarily a part of the natural world of the field, but he is caught up in the same loneliness that exists there.
Count—denotation is “to take into account.” The word creates the sense that he does not matter—he cannot be counted among the elements of the natural world in which he finds himself.
Loneliness: the stanza begins with a vague “it” and it is not until the end that the reader sees the antecedent to “it” is the word “loneliness,” which connotes melancholia. However, the first three lines of this stanza inform the reader that this “loneliness” is given to the woods and the animals because they “count.” His inclusion in the loneliness is accidental.
Third Stanza:
Repetition: The repetition of “lonely/loneliness” underscores the weight of the loneliness that has been brought by the nighttime and the snow.
Alliteration/assonance: “blanker whiteness of benighted snow”—the repetition of the “b” sound and the assonance of the ‘i’ sound reinforces the magnitude of the blank slate the snow has made of the ground, and the reader can imagine the stark contrast between the snow and the night sky. These sound devices contribute to the melancholy tone established so far in the poem.
Repetition: “no expression, nothing to express”—both phrases convey the same message. The repetition of the phrases creates a sense of detachment, as if the snow has buried emotion, buried life itself. The speaker seems to repeat these phrases out of a mutual understanding with this world of lonely, emotionless emptiness.
Fourth Stanza:
Alliteration/repetition/diction: throughout the stanza there is the repetition of the ‘s’ sound as well as the repetition of the word “scare.” The speaker uses “scare” first in relation to the “empty spaces” of the universe, much like the one he has spent three stanzas describing. The first three stanzas have all conveyed a sense of death, with all vegetation, color, and life buried in snow. The speaker seems to declare that he is not scared of the death that lives in “empty spaces.” The repetition of the ‘s’ sound reinforces the vastness of the spaces and underscores his lack of fear. It almost seems like he is trying to convince himself. The second use of “scare” is in relation to the places within himself that actually do make him afraid.
Diction: “desert”—the speaker uses the word “desert” to describe the “places” within him that cause fear. A desert connotes dry, fiery hotness, which is in direct contrast to the icy cold landscape he is observing and describing throughout this poem, though they are both barren, empty spaces. The reader gets the sense that this word choice describes the state of his dried up heart and his “absent” spirit. He has his own version of empty, meaningless space within himself, so he does not need to even bother thinking about being afraid of the spaces outside of himself.

TPCASTT for “Desert Places”
Tone:
The tone of the poem is solemn and meditative in the first stanza and becomes more melancholic in the second stanza. In the third stanza the tone is melancholic and detached. In the final stanza the tone is candid and somber.
Shifts:
Each stanza division creates a shift. The first stanza shifts from the surface-level description of a peaceful, snow-filled field to describing the spiritual level of a world buried in loneliness in the second and third stanzas. The fourth stanza then shifts into a description of the world within the speaker himself that is similar to the outer world described in the first three stanzas.
Title:
The title is now much clearer. At the center of this poem, though we don’t learn about it until the end, is the shriveled, dried up, desert places within the speaker that resemble the empty space of a field covered in snow, or even the empty space between and on stars.
Theme:
In the poem, “Desert Places,” Robert Frost expresses the idea that when people become spiritually depleted they can lose their sense of meaning and purpose.