Monday, September 9, 2013

What are the similarities between Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" and Bronte's "Spellbound"?

Quite a few similarities exist between the Frost poem and the Bronte poem. First of all, the setting is quite similar. In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," the speaker finds himself in "the woods" which  "are lovely, dark and deep" on an evening when snow is falling. Likewise, in "Spellbound," the speaker finds herself in a snow storm as "the night is darkening round me" and "a storm is fast descending." As well, darkness is emphasized in both poems. However, in the Frost poem, the speaker does not seem to fear "the darkest evening of the year"; whereas, the speaker in the Bronte poem is spellbound "by a tyrant spell" emphasizing a mood of gloom.
A central motif in both poems is isolation. The speaker in Frost's poem finds himself alone with his horse on the winter's eve stopping "without a farmhouse near between the woods and frozen lake." Likewise, the speaker in "Spellbound," finds herself in the woods with a storm nearing but she "cannot go." The isolation of the woods in both poems allows the speakers to contemplate their situation.
Symbolically, in "Stopping by Woods..." the speaker relates that he has "miles to go before I sleep." If sleep is a metaphor for death then the speaker makes the decision to continue on his life journey and not stop for death. Similarly, in "Spellbound," the speaker asserts at the beginning of the poem that she is under a spell and "cannot go." It is unclear whether she is referring to going to either heaven or hell. Yet, at the end of the poem, she states, "I will not, cannot go." Thus, both narrators have free will to make decisions regarding their differing situations in the snowy woods.
https://poemanalysis.com/spellbound-emily-bronte-poem-analysis/

https://poets.org/poem/spellbound

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening

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