Lyric Poem · Nature
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost · 1923
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.
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“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost — quilloak.com/poems/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening
Quick facts
- Poem
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- Poet
- Robert Frost
- Published
- 1923
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Nature, Winter, Life
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- Line length
- Long metre. Four eight-syllable lines (8.8.8.8), the hymn stanza's longer cousin.
- Refrains
- “And miles to go before I sleep,”“And miles to go before I sleep.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Frost1874–1963
- Source record
- WikisourceStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by robert-frost, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1923
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 e906e7af4875acfc…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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