Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Group

Question:

crutt
crutt
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What conflict do the bells and the wind present to the speaker in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"?

Robert Frost's poem

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Posted by crutt on Tuesday June 16, 2009 at 9:09 AM and tagged with bells, conflict, wind.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    In Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," the bells represent time and society's obligatory creations while the wind is representative of Nature.  The horse gives "his harness bells a shake" to remind the poet that he has worldly obligations to fulfill as he stops to contemplate and enjoy the beauty of nature, whose only sound is the

    sweep/Of easy wind and downy flake.

    Thus, the conflict that presents itself is one between that of society and its obligations--"promises to keep"--and the natural world whose "woods are lovely, dark and deep."

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/stopping-by/text-poem

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    Posted by mwestwood on Tuesday June 16, 2009 at 10:19 AM