comparecontrast

Robert Frost takes our imagination to a journey through wintertime with his two poems “Desert Places” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Frost comes from a New England background and these two poems reflect the beautiful scenery that is present in our part of the country. Even though these poems both have winter settings, they contain very different tones. One has a feeling of depressing loneliness, and the other a feeling of welcome solitude. They show how the same setting can have totally different impacts on a person depending on their mindset at the time. These poems are both made up of simple stanzas and diction, but they are not simple poems.

In the poem “Desert Places” the speaker is a man who is traveling through the countryside on a beautiful winter evening. He is completely surrounded with feelings of loneliness. The speaker views a snow-covered field as a desert place. “A blanker whiteness of benighted snow/ With no expression, nothing to express.” Whiteness and blankness are two key ideas in this poem. The white symbolizes open and empty spaces. The snow is a white blanket that covers up everything living. The blankness symbolizes the emptiness that the speaker feels. To him there is nothing e

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He is at a stage where he just does not care about too much and he feels a bit paranoid.

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is a much happier and more upbeat poem than “Desert Places. He recognized that this winter place was like his life. ” I think that the speaker’s life may be a little better off since he stopped to take a deep breath and enjoy all that really matters, the simple things. They show two extremes of the same emotion. “They cannot scare me with their empty space.

All animals are smothered in their lairs. Winter for me is a time of silent reflection.

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.

The woods around it have it-it is theirs. “The woods around it have it – it is theirs. The man almost feels guilty for looking so lovingly at this other man’s woods. “My little horse must think it queer/ To stop without a farmhouse near.

Approximate Word count = 1241
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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