Major themes Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” like many of Frost's poems, explores the theme of the individual caught between nature and civilization.

The speaker's location on the border between civilization and wilderness echoes a common theme throughout American literature.

The speaker is drawn to the beauty and allure of the woods, which represent nature, but has obligations—“promises to keep”—which draw him away from nature and back to society and the world of men.

The speaker is thus faced with a choice of whether to give in to the allure of nature, or remain in the realm of society.

Some critics have interpreted the poem as a meditation on death—the woods represent the allure of death, perhaps suicide, which the speaker resists in order to return to the mundane tasks which order daily life.