Analysis “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
2. Read the poem and listen to the rhythm. Describe it. How does the rhythm make
the poem sound?
3. How many stanzas does the poem have?
4. Look at the first stanza. Describe the scene without using the exact words in the
poem.
5. Look at the first two lines of the second stanza. How does the author assume the
horse feels about stopping in the middle of the woods with no farmhouse nearby?
6. Look at the last two lines of the second stanza. Describe the scene without using
the exact words from the poem. What feeling does the speaker convey?
7. Look at the first two lines of the third stanza. What does the horse do, and what
might it indicate?
8. Look at the last two lines of the third stanza. Describe the scene without using the
words in the poem.
9. Look at the last stanza. What is the literal meaning?
10. What might be a figurative meaning of the last stanza? Focus on the word
“sleep”.
11. Many poems have a shift in meaning, or a realization, an insight. Where is the
shift in the poem? How do you know?
12. What is a theme of the poem? What does it say about the human condition,
experience or motivation?