1. Outcomes: Lesson Objective/s:
The Draft Horse and Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
Lesson Objective/s:
To develop an understanding of the destination of ‘The Draft Horse’
To develop an understanding of the destination of ‘SBTWOASE’
To be able to discuss Frost’s literal and figurative ideas.
Outcomes:
To have identified and commented on any potential symbols and metaphor Frost uses.
To have commented on the importance of place in the poem
To have commented on the significance of the horse in each poem
To have commented on any potential themes in the poem
To have commented on how the poems might relate to each other

2. Starter activity:
Robert Frost once said:
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”
How might the poems we have read so far help explain
these quotations?

3. Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Frost wrote the poem in June, 1922 at his house in Shaftsbury, Vermont. He had been up the entire night writing the long poem "New Hampshire" and had finally finished when he realized morning had come. He went out to view the sunrise and suddenly got the idea for "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".[1] He wrote the new poem "about the snowy evening and the little horse as if I'd had a hallucination" in just "a few minutes without strain."
The poem again seems quite simple. But when we read Frost we must try and discuss metaphor and symbols. There are some reoccurring symbols to be found here.

4. Stanza One: 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.
*What have woods symbolised so far in Frost’s poems.
*Whose woods’ do you thinks these woods are?
*How is time significant here?

5. Stanza Two: 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.
*Why might the horse be a little confused at this moment?
*How is the scene presented to us?

6. Stanza Three: 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.
*How is the horse characterised here?
*What might the mistake be?
*How is the setting important here?

7. Stanza Four: 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.
*What are the woods a symbol of?
*What might the snow and ice be a symbol of?
*What promises might he have to keep?
*The repetition is probably the most famous piece of repetition in English Literature. What does ‘miles’ signify and what does ‘sleep’ signify?

8. Further discussion questions:
The poem seems to be about the inevitability of death.
Does Frost fear death?
Is he celebrating life?

9. Five minutes:
Paraphrase each of the stanzas.
(What is literally happening?)
When you read it literally, the poem seems a little strange. The poem is written in a ballad form and therefore should really tell us a story. A story about what though? A man jumping out of a wood and killing someone’s horse seems a little strange. Frost was in his 80s when this poem was published!

10. Stanza One: Five minutes With a lantern that wouldn’t burn
In too frail a buggy we drove
Behind too heavy a horse
Through a pitch-dark limitless grove.
*Why doesn’t the lantern burn?
*Why are they driving a buggy that’s too frail?
*Why is the horse pulling them too heavy?
*A grove is small copse of wood – why is this one limitless?
Frost loves metaphor and symbols – what else might he be exploring here?

11. Stanza Two: Five minutes And a man came out of the trees
And took our horse by the head
And reaching back to his ribs
Deliberately stabbed him dead.
*Who is the man?
*Why did he stab the horse?
*What might the death of the horse signify?

12. Stanza Three The ponderous beast went down
With a crack of a broken shaft.
And the night drew through the trees
In one long invidious draft.
*Why has Frost described the horse as ‘ponderous’?
*It seems the buggy is destroyed along with the horse, what might the buggy signify?
*Why does night approach when the horse and buggy become useless?

13. *How is the couple characterised here?
Stanza Four
The most unquestioning pair
That ever accepted fate
And the least disposed to ascribe
Any more than we had to hate,
*How is the couple characterised here?
*There is a clear mention of blame, what are the couple’s thoughts on blame?

14. Stanza Five We assumed that the man himself Or someone he had to obey
Wanted us to get down
And walk the rest of the way.
*The couple’s reaction to the murder of their horse seems a little mute. Why might this be?
*Why might they make the assumption they do?
*What journey might Frost be exploring here?

15. Further discussion Questions:
The poem seems to explore a life, or lives, that are coming to an end.
Does the poet see death as inevitable? (Fate) Something he accepts?
Is there a hint of resentment here? If so, what my be resented?
The content of the poem is quite disturbing. Why do you think Frost chose the ballad form and use such a measured precise tone?

16. The poems were written at either ends of Frost’s life
The poems were written at either ends of Frost’s life. Has his attitude on death changed?
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”