Robert Frost successfully taken reader's imagination on a journey through the wintertime with his poems "Desert Places" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Frost's New England background in 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 completely different tones. One poem has a feeling of a depressing loneliness, and the other of feeling welcome. The poems show how the same setting can have totally different impacts on an individual depending on their mind set at the moment. These poems are both made up of simple stanzas and diction, but they are not simple poems, and could be easily misunderstood.
             In the poem "Desert Places" the male speaker is traveling through the countryside on a beautiful winter evening and is completely surrounded with the feeling of loneliness. The narrator views the 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 around except for the snow and his lonesome thoughts. The speaker in this poem shows jealousy towards the woods. "The woods around it have it – it is theirs." The woods symbolize people and society. They have something that belongs to them that they can feel a part of. The speaker is so alone inside that he feels that he is not a part of anything. Nature has a way of bringing everything together to act as one, even animals are a part of the winter. "All animals are smothered in their lairs, I am too absent spirited to count." The snow makes everything around it white, and to him it is a feeling of numbness. "The loneliness includes me unawares." The speaker ha...