PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it - it is theirs.
All the animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less -
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
UNKOWN WORDS
- Ere- before, sooner than
- Benighted- Overtaken by night
Shift:
The shift is between the first stanza and the other three because in the second stanza it starts to mention loneliness.
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The tone is peaceful. It describes the snow and the night falling, which brings a calming sensation.
The woods around it have it - it is theirs.
All the animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
The tone is quiet. All of the animals are hidden and he is all alone in the woods.
And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less -
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.
The tone is desolate. Robert Frost describes the snow as having no expression, just like he is lonely with nothing to show.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
The tone is solitary. The empty places cannot scare him because it already lies within him, causing him to be independent and secluded.
Meaning:
The poem tells of the narrator's depressed feelings when he is observing a snow-covered field. As he speaks, it becomes clear that the immense emptiness of the landscape is a reflection of the narrator's own personal sense of isolation and independence.
Rhetorical Devices:
-Imagery is in the first stanza when it describes the ground as "almost covered in smooth snow, but a few weeds and stubble showing last."
-Personification is used in the third stanza when it describes the snow as having no expression.
