For this Christmas blog post, I would like to suggest that the famous poem by Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, is actually about Santa Claus.
Let’s take a look at the poem before we analyze it:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert FrostWhose 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.
Who is this strange man who has stopped in someone else’s woods at night, on a snowy evening? What are all these promises he has to keep? Why so many miles to travel?
The “darkest evening of the year” would be the 21st of December. But perhaps Frost has taken some liberties here. “The third darkest evening of the year” doesn’t quite fit in the established meter, and isn’t quite as neat.
The harness bells evoke a reindeer, and the animal appears in a stanza rhyming on queer/near/year. Is “reindeer” being playfully implied by rhyme?
In the third stanza, the animal is asking about a mistake, which the speaker has stopped in the woods to check. He is checking the list (a second time).
The opening stanza introduces our speaker, and it rhymes on know/though/snow. Playfully implying “ho-ho-ho” through rhyme?
This is a poem about Santa Claus.
David F. Shultz 
I suggested this to my college literary prof – over 30 years ago. She asked me to walk her through the poem and prove my point. What would Santa stop anywhere but houses where children reside? Santa knows where the children live. Lomgest night of the year? Yes, I suggested Dec 21 – but better is that through his magic, the night is as long as he needs it to be to deliver all the gifts to the children. Then she said “I have never heard this interpretation and I did my doctoral thesis on this poem!” Here I was a dumb (where is comes to literature) engineering student, going to college full time while working at an engineering firm full tim,and I was the youngest person in the class. – I thought, well, I just failed this class. She congratulated me on an original interpretation and, regardless of what the author intended, the beauty of poetry is that its meaning can change with each reader.
Nice to read another independent thinker!!
LikeLike
Yes!!! I was just saying this in my class. The first time I read this I thought it was about Santa Claus. It’s amazing that there isn’t more reference to that
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad you found this, then! Maybe you can convince your class it’s the right interpretation! Haha! Good luck!
LikeLike
There is no such thing as a right interpretation
LikeLike
The first stanza tells us we re dealing with a solitary traveler. That s made clearer as we read on. This traveler is not quite familiar with who might own what piece of land in the woods, but certainly knows the person s house in the village. That s his expertise, so to say. Besides, he s the only one out and about this time of the evening. And we get to see it s a lovely winter scene, one beautiful enough to give the traveler pause to stop, admire and enjoy it.
LikeLike
Thannks great blog
LikeLike