by Robert Frost
|
Snow falling and night falling
fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going
past, And the ground almost covered
smooth in snow, But a few
weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it--it
is theirs. All animals are smothered in
their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to
count; The loneliness includes me
unawares. And lonely as it is that
loneliness Will be more lonely ere it will
be less— A blanker whiteness of
benighted snow With no expression, nothing to
express. They cannot scare me with their
empty spaces Between stars--on stars where
no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer
home To scare myself with my own
desert places. |
Questions
1.
What, precisely, is described in
stanza 1?
2.
What does "it" refer to
in line 5 (repeated three times)?
3.
In stanza 2, what is the speaker
referring to when he says, "The loneliness includes me unawares"?
4.
What does the speaker foresee in
stanza 3, particularly in the last line?
5.
What are the "desert
places" referred to in the last line of the poem?
6.
Do you think the recognition of
such "desert places" within a poet is peculiar to the poet or is it a
part of general human experience?
Discuss.