Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and Woodchucks by Maxine Kumin Essay Example

atmosphere depicting a winter landscape.

The traditional form of poetry is hinted at in both Frost's and Kumin's poems, but it is used in a modern way by Frost. He keeps the outward traditional form while innovating in technique and usage. Frost's poem is four regular quatrains whereas Kumin's poem is composed of five rhymed sestets. In Kumin's poem, the abruptness of the lines and transitions create essential tension. The first line of Kumin's poem is an abrupt sentence that hints at hidden discontent regarding the inability to kill woodchucks destroying her garden. Unlike Frost's poem, "Woodchucks" by Kumin details the hunt and eventual killing of the woodchucks that destroy her garden, culminating with the relation of the thrill of killing the animals one by one.

The text explains how the use of tense influences the way in which a message is conveyed. The poem "Woodchucks" analyzes a persisting problem with the return of woodchucks, which becomes an obsession for the protagonist as they fail to catch the last one. In contrast, Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" captures a single moment and feeling in the present tense, focusing on the act of stopping by snowy woods. This stop represents a break from the ordinary and provides the author with intimations while looking at the landscape. Ultimately, "Woodchucks" explores themes of death and crime, including the Holocaust. The form of both poems is significant to their construction and presentation of their respective themes.

In describing his experience of pausing at the edge of a forest on a dark winter evening, Frost uses metaphor to convey a deeper message. Though the interpretation may not be

immediately clear, his poem captures a moment that is rich with significance. He contemplates the beauty of the "lovely, dark and deep" woods and is reluctant to leave, feeling as though there is something magical and powerful present in the snow-covered trees. Ultimately, he is unable to move on from this spot, in awe of the enchanting scene before him.

The purpose of the poem is to identify the thing that compels the author to stay instead of returning to civilization. Many factors in the poem reflect this, including the allure of the snow and woods, but the author's sense of commitment to society drives him to continue his journey. The owner of the woods, mentioned at the start of the poem, symbolizes modern society's control over nature. This separation from primordial ties to wilderness and nature creates a sense of obligation to the human world. The first stanza mentions the obscure owner of the woods, followed by the author's horse who questions his decision to linger in the wild, and ultimately his own promises.

According to Frost (112), the poet is unable to give in to his desire to stay in the woods and become lost in the snowdrifts due to his ties to civilization and the promises he has made. The horse represents the most oppressive force on the poet, even though it should belong to the wilderness as a beast. Throughout time, humans have "humanized" horses through training, and as a result, the horse finds it strange that its master would stop in the woods on a dark winter evening instead of hurrying home due to the rough weather and wind.

Frost (112) writes that "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." The sound of the horse's harness bells serves as another reminder of the poet's civilized world. Alongside this feeling of constraint comes a craving for death and a union with the untamed landscape surrounding him, which is apparent in the poem's final lines where Frost (112) repeats the notion of a "duty" to the world before one falls asleep: "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."

Robert Frost's use of the phrase "miles to go before one sleeps" in his work (Frost, 112) represents the lengthy journey through life that one must continue. The longing for death expressed here is different from that found in Woodchucks, as emphasized by the obscure nature of Kumin's poem until the end. The parallel between the faith of the chucks and that of the Jews during the Nazi regime becomes clear at this point, where death takes the form of a hunt with a political theme. The innate feelings of man towards murder are underscored by the poet.
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The author's fascination with the Holocaust intertwined with her Jewish background is intriguing as she directs the thrill of killing towards herself, consequently reversing the roles assigned to the victim and the murderer. Although she should be considered as the victim, being Jewish, she obsesses over gassing and shooting woodchucks in her garden. This shift in dynamics is indicative of how the

potential victim can become the hunter, due to the innate human tendency to kill. "There's one chuck left. Old wily fellow, he keeps/me cocked and ready day after day after day."

In contrast to Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" which explores the urge to die, Kumin's "All night I hunt his humped-up form. I dream/I sight along the barrel in my sleep. If only they'd all consented to die unseen/gassed underground the quiet Nazi way." delves into the instinct to kill.

The two poems' themes are significantly supported by their imagery and word choices. Frost's poem uses the winter landscape and its associated images to effectively convey the main theme. The heavy snowfall and eerie silence of the woods create a suffocating atmosphere, but the author attributes this feeling more to civilization than nature.

The idea of civilization being oppressive is contrasted with the idea of wilderness as a perfect refuge in spite of the snow. The poem utilizes imagery and sounds to create familiarity with a winter landscape and evoke similar emotions. The theme is introduced by the repetitive line indicating the author's desire for rest and detachment from the world, but acknowledges its impossibility due to the "many miles" left to travel before death. In contrast, Kumin's poem "Woodchucks" employs violent imagery and words to create tension and suggest the thrill of revenge, with a focus on instruments of murder.

The text highlights the suggestive nature of elements such as the gassing, bullets, and animal descriptions in a poem. The excerpt from Kumin's poem showcases the transformation of a lapsed pacifist to an individual who finds pleasure in killing, with the speaker drawing a

bead on a woodchuck's face and causing its death. The use of rhyme and rhythm differs between Frost and Kumin's works, with Frost utilizing iambic tetrameter and quatrains that maintain a consistent rhyme scheme throughout the poem, resulting in a seamless flow across stanzas.

Both Frost and Kumin use rhyme and rhythm to convey their messages, but in different ways. Frost's use accurately represents the silence of the landscape and the death wish that comes upon him, while Kumin employs them to transmit the threat and violence hidden in human nature. The characters and settings are important in both poems, contextualizing the theme by focusing on a protagonist who is also the authorial voice. Frost's longing for death is a very personal feeling that isolates him from society, while Kumin responds to the aggressiveness she experienced under the Nazis with a thrill for killing. The settings trigger the musings in both, with Frost's being important for inspiration and Kumin's resembling death camps during the Nazi regime. Despite their differences in artistic expression, both texts effectively tackle the theme of death musings.