Hope and Despair in Robert Frost’s Poetry
One significant motif in both poems is the pastoral setting. Both poems are set in the woods and a field on a snowy winter evening. The poet’s response to the natural setting in each poem contrasts sharply from one another, though, and thus sets the mood and tone in each. The imagery in “Snowy Evening” creates an atmosphere of wonder and enchantment. Though he is only somewhat familiar with the woods he wanders into-“Whose woods these are I think I know”(Frost 1)-this does not prevent him from stopping and enjoying the scenery. His description of the woods as “lovely, dark, and deep” (13) also reveal the poet’s response to the pastoral setting around him.
The environment, though cold and seemingly uninviting, are in fact welcoming to the poet traveler. In contrast, “Desert Places” creates a pervasive sense of dread within the pastoral imagery. This becomes apparent in the first line: “Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast.” Frost’s emphasis on the stressed snow fall-ing, night fall-ing and oh and fast in iambic pentameter quickens the rhythm so that it reads like a gasp of terror. Already, the poet’s response to the environment is neither welcoming nor inviting. Like the poet traveler in “Snowy Evening,” the poet is merely passing through the scenery, but his response to it creates an atmosphere of dread which continues throughout the poem. The poet’s description of the scenery conveys similarly a sense of despair with its “few weeds and stubble showing last” (4). The wilderness within its winter cloak is full of rot and decay.
Only weeds and stubble can survive. Even the animals in their lairs “are smothered” by the snow (6), so one can only imagine then the poet’s own ability to survive in the vast cold wilderness here. His description of the snow as being “…blanker whiteness of benighted snow/With no expression, nothing to express” (11-12) conveys existential terror. The landscape isn’t hostile, but rather indifferent. The poet fears and dreads this environment and the meaning it has in his life.
Another motif which plays similarly in both poems but offer contrasting visions of hope and despair is the presence and/or absence of living things or matter. The most obvious are the flora and fauna in both environments. In “Snowy Evening,” there are the woods itself and “the frozen lake” (7). Yet, there are other presences besides the poet traveler which lend to the hopeful tone in the poem. Though the poet is alone with his horse, there is evidence that he is surrounded, if not in actuality then in spirit, with others. This is revealed in the first stanza:
“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” (1-5)
Though the owner of the woods is absent, the poet’s relationship to him is imagined in a way that makes him very much a real actor within the scope of the poem. The owner “will not see” the poet traveler in his supposed transgressive act, but he is nonetheless still present in the poet’s mind, watching him and perhaps not minding his enjoyment of the property. Thus, the poet has a relationship with this owner through the environment. His attachment to the environment attaches him to other living beings. The poet’s horse is also a significant player.
The horse’s reaction to his master stopping “without a farmhouse near/Between the woods and frozen lake” (7) is one that is imagined by the poet, but the fact that the poet can imagine his horse’s thoughts suggests a comfort or communion with other living things. In this sense, the poet is never alone even when he is. The poet traveler in “Desert Places” has no such communion, even though the poet is capable of imagining other living beings, such as the animals “smothered in their lairs.”
The absence of any presence besides the poet is telling. The language and repetition in the poem emphasizes an existential existence. The words “lonely” and “loneliness” are repeated four times within the poem, often within the same line, such as “The loneliness includes me unawares/And lonely as it is, that loneliness/Will be more lonely ere it will be less-“(8-10). Frost repeats this sense of aloneness in motifs, as well. “A blanket whiteness,” “their empty spaces,” “-on stars where no human race is,”(14), and even the title of the poem which is repeated within the poem itself “desert spaces”(16) conveys not only a sense of loneliness but of nonexistence.
The poet’s relationship to the environment reveals his own fears of “nonexistence” or death. The whiteness of the snow, the decay, the vast emptiness, the empty spaces between heaven and earth remind him of his own death, hence the gasp of terror in the first line of the poem.
And yet, the vast sense of emptiness which greets the poet does not compare to the fear of the “desert places” in his own soul (16), the barrenness and emptiness that already exist in himself. These phrases, their repetitions, and motifs not only singularly present a hopeless, existential dread for the poet’s own eventual death, but the loneliness he faces in life. This is particularly implied in the lines: “I am too absent-spirited to count;/The loneliness includes me unawares” (7-8). Here, the poet realizes that death and life are both lonely affairs.
The most significant repetition of phrase in “Snowy Evening,” of course, is in the last two lines of the final stanza. While the poem seemingly ends with regret, a sense of hope is implied in those lines. The lines can be interpreted in two ways. One, it can be taken at face value. The poet traveler realizes he has a long way to go before he can have any physical rest on his journey. Another way in which these lines can be interpreted is that the poet is aware of his own eventual death, but realizes the “long way” he must travel before that will occur.
These lines might suggest that the poet is himself a young man who does not anticipate his death, but this would miss a far deeper revelation within the poem. This is apparent in the previous line-“But I have promises to keep,”(14). This line is significant because it again suggests an implied relationship the poet has with others and himself. These “promises” can be interpreted as goals or desires the poet has set to achieve for himself and/or others. Therein, the “promises” convey a sense of hope for the future.
Death or nonexistence, in this sense, does not define the poet in this poem as it does in “Desert Places.” The poet traveler does not live in dread of an existential existence because his existence is defined by his relationships with others. As I wrote before, this is evident in the presence of others-the woods owner, the horse-even when they are not physically present. Yet, the poet in “Desert Places” dreads his own death because he dreads his life. There are no contradictory views of life and death here. It is only in the final stanza when the poet finally faces the emptiness in his own life.
The poet here displays a defiance even in the face of death. It seems he is almost bragging about how emptier he is than even the emptiness he knows he will face after death. Perhaps this is a show of bravado in the face of his fears. But one must then question as to why Robert Frost the Poet would have such contradictory visions of life and death. One of the more significant presences and absences in either poem, as I stated before, concerns relationships with other living things or the environment. Here, the contradictory visions presented in either poem become clearer when contrasted with the sense of communion the poet traveler experiences in the woods in “Snowy Evening” and the lack of communion or desire for it in “Desert Places.” Here, each poem offers contrasting views on life.
The existential fears that greet the poet in “Desert Places” are illuminated when he is faced with the “vast emptiness” of the landscape and his singular loneliness within this environment. The poet is searching for meaning not only in the environment but in his own life. This is implied in the line: “In a field I looked into going past” (2). The poet’s desire is to look even when the vision frightens him. Within the vision is a truth that has evaded him, though that truth only thrusts him deeper into existential despair. Hence, the defiance the poet exhibits in the final stanza becomes understandable.
The defiance is an admittance of his own fatal flaw-the “desert places” within himself that refused to allow any communal relationships to grow. In contrast, the poet traveler in “Snowy Evening” needs not fear an existential death because he has already sought or is seeking meaning in his life, which is implied in the “promises” he intends to keep. The miles he must travel is not measured in years but in the relationships he fosters. The fact that the poet views death as a form of sleep is proof of his lack of fear.
So, here, the contrasting visions in both poems take on greater significance when compared with one another. Frost’s own belief that traditional poetry will always have relevance as long as the “context-meaning-subject matter” (1200) of the poet’s material becomes his true focus is evidenced in his treatment in both “Snowy Evening” and “Desert Places.” Two snowy evenings in the woods are given different perspectives because of the context in which these events are envisioned.
While the modernist and Imagists poets focused on language and imagery, Frost maintained the traditional route and provided two very similarly-themed poems with striking definitions on the human condition.
