Woods are dark but not very deep and not so lovely- My time at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California
Prologue ‘Whose woods are these I think I know ………………………………… 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’ The last four are the end lines of the San Francisco born Robert Lee Frost, the much celebrated English poet’s 16 line sonnet titled ’Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening’, published in 1923. This poem by Frost is probably the most read and most loved. Written in quatrain rhymed iambic tetrameter (a poem written with four iambs per line), it begins with the willful entry of the narrator and his exit at the end of the poem. When he stops his sleigh in the midst of snowy woods he is in awe of the splendid vista the wooded place has to offer even on a dark evening. He wants to stay there longer and adore what he sees. He soon realizes he has unkept promises to fulfill and ‘miles to go before I sleep,’ echoing the departure to or rather a new pursuit of practical duties. The poem fits into ma...