Page 106 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
by Robert Frost, pages 84-85

Vocabulary
[none]

1. Write the rhyme scheme of the poem. In what way does the rhyme scheme of the final
stanza differ from those of the stanzas that precede it?

AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDDD

In the final stanza, there is no third-line departure from the end rhyme of the rest of the
stanza. Every line in the final stanza rhymes.

2. How would the feel and potential meaning of the poem differ if the last line was not
repeated?

Answers may vary. Example: The line “And miles to go before I sleep,” would seem
entirely literal; the surprise of the repetition is what raises the possibility that the speaker
might mean eternal sleep. Frost, himself, claimed that the poem seemed incomplete without
the final line, but he was unable to do anything else other than repeat it. This repetition
allows the reader to interpret the first line as literal sleep, but the second as death.

3. What do you think the speaker wants to do at the end of the poem? Support your answer
with details from the text.

Answers may vary. Example: The speaker wants to remain in the woods, mentioning that
they are “lovely, dark and deep,” but then adds, like someone responding to the call of
duty, “But I have promises to keep.”

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