"The Road Not Taken," one of Robert Frost's most famous poems, is sometimes compared to another of his famous and well-loved poems, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Both of these poems feature a lone traveler as the narrator. In the former, the narrator is traveling by foot, taking a walk in the woods on an autumn morning. In the latter, a man either on horseback or in a horse-drawn buggy stops on a...
"The Road Not Taken," one of Robert Frost's most famous poems, is sometimes compared to another of his famous and well-loved poems, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Both of these poems feature a lone traveler as the narrator. In the former, the narrator is traveling by foot, taking a walk in the woods on an autumn morning. In the latter, a man either on horseback or in a horse-drawn buggy stops on a winter evening to watch the snow falling in the woods.
In both poems, the narrator has a decision to make. In "The Road Not Taken," the narrator must decide which of "two roads... diverged in a yellow wood" he should take. The narrator believes his choice will lead him on to other paths and that he will never be able to return to experience what the other choice would have been. In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," the narrator's choice is not about which direction to go, but rather whether to go or stay. He loves the calm scene of the gentle snowfall in the deserted woods, but his responsibilities compel him to continue his journey—he has "miles to go before I sleep."
Both poems give glimpses of the narrator's world beyond the moment of the current scene of the poem. In "The Road Not Taken," the narrator imagines a day in the future when he "will be telling this with a sigh" to some person who will be listening to his tale, but we get no real insight into the narrator's current life or concerns. In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," readers understand that obligations in the world beyond the woods are placing demands on the narrator's life now. We don't know what those obligations are, but the tone of the poem suggests they weigh heavily upon the man. The look into the future in this poem does not go "ages and ages hence," as it does in "The Road Not Taken." "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" only goes a few hours into the future until the man finds his rest at his destination. If read metaphorically, however, the "miles to go before I sleep" could mean the man has many years of responsibility before he will retire or die. In that case, both poems project far into the future.
Both poems are set in a woods, feature a narrator who has a choice to make, and project the action of the poem into the future, making them similar in some respects.