[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by DukeX

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

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.

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.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


I think Robert left the 6'8" nun back at the barn.

This poem may seem simple (a Frost trademark), but there is much going on here, both poetically and thematically.

What I thought was weird when re-reading this poem I thought I knew well was that there's very little visual in it, even if he starts out saying he thinks he might watch the woods fill up with snow, it's all sound images after that. Even the snow is described as the sound of one layer sweeping over a base layer. As an example for inspiration: you could set your song in complete darkness, or use some other sense other than sight for your description or image.

Here's Frost's poem as I set it to music last year:

Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening

Then there was a modern times parody that I tossed off after working on the Frost, even using a similar, though major key this time, chord progression.

Here's what I wrote about how reading Frost inspired the follow-up:

Stopping by a Woods with Bad Cellphone Service

Inspiration idea there could be take a older poem, incident, or story and reset it in modern dress, either for humor or just because it's a good tale worth stealing. Of course no good writer ever steals plots--well, there was that Shakespeare guy, but still....