Robert Frost, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

www.online-literature.com ^ | June, 1922 | Robert Frost

[A_perfect_lady]

It might make sense to you ??....I sure don't see it. I find yours a strange interpretation, but each his own....

I think the woods are a woman.

[Moonman62]

I don’t know much about poetry, but I always thought that there was a subtle contemplation of suicide in that poem. At least that was discussed in my college poetry class way back when.

...

Old thread, but I found it while cleaning up my bookmarks. Considering Frost’s personal life, I’d say your interpretation is correct. From Wiki:

Robert Frost’s personal life was plagued by grief and loss. In 1885 when he was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with just eight dollars. Frost’s mother died of cancer in 1900. In 1920, he had to commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later. Mental illness apparently ran in Frost’s family, as both he and his mother suffered from depression, and his daughter Irma was committed to a mental hospital in 1947. Frost’s wife, Elinor, also experienced bouts of depression.

Elinor and Robert Frost had six children: son Elliot (1896–1900, died of cholera); daughter Lesley Frost Ballantine (1899–1983); son Carol (1902–1940, committed suicide); daughter Irma (1903–1967); daughter Marjorie (1905–1934, died as a result of puerperal fever after childbirth); and daughter Elinor Bettina (died just one day after her birth in 1907). Only Lesley and Irma outlived their father. Frost’s wife, who had heart problems throughout her life, developed breast cancer in 1937, and died of heart failure in 1938.