Robert Frost was probably the most celebrated American poet of the twentieth century, and his 1922 poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening remains one of his most well-known. In June, 1922 at his home in Vermont, Frost had been up all night writing and went outside to view the sunrise. He suddenly got the idea for the poem "about the snowy evening and the little horse as if I'd had a hallucination" and wrote it in "a few minutes without strain." The text of the poem describes a lone traveler pausing at night during his travel to watch the snow falling in the woods. Here's the full text:
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.
Here's one of the only recordings of Frost reading the poem:
