In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, by Robert Frost, the isolated speaker talks to himself and admires nature in winter, more specifically the woods in front of which he stands with his horse. Through lexical fields and contrast, an atmosphere of darkness and loneliness is created by winter. This climate allows the speaker to think deeply and stop his travel for a moment.

The characteristics of winter are to darken places by covering the sky with clouds and evenings come earlier than usually. Therefore, this season emphasises the atmosphere of darkness in the woods. For example, the superlative in the second stanza “The darkest evening of the year” (l. 8) accentuates the idea of darkness because other evenings are not as dark as the one that the speaker describes. This grammatical term has an impact on the poem because it brings the reader through the feeling of fear and darkness, and “the darkest evening of the year” takes place in winter. That is why the season emphasise the obscure atmosphere of the place. Furthermore, in the last stanza “The woods are lovely, dark and deep” (l.13) express a contrast between the adjectives “lovely” and “dark and deep”, which highlight the gloomy atmosphere because the word “lovely”, which reflects a positive feeling, is not generally associated with “dark and deep”, which express an idea of fear. This opposition makes the reader attentive to the description of the woods and it can be explained by the presence of winter, which can be at the same time lovely because of the flakes that fall to the ground, and dark because of the lack of brightness. The atmosphere of darkness is accentuated by winter because the season takes off the light from the forest.

Winter does not only emphasize darkness, but it has a second role: it highlights the loneliness of the poem. In fact, it exists two forms of loneliness: for people or places. In the poem, it is about the place, that is isolated and unusually frequented and not about the speaker who is not alone thanks to his horse. The setting in “My little horse must think it queer / To stop without a farmhouse near” (l.4-5) at the beginning of the poem illustrates that the speaker is not alone, in opposition to the woods, where there is no “farmhouse near”. This contrast is also visible in the third stanza with “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.” (l.9-10-11-12) where the horse is personified to show that the speaker has a closed companion and on the opposite, the place is remarkably silent because the sound of the wind and the flake, which is typical of winter, can be listened, what is not possible in busy places. Finally, the lexical field of winter with “snow” (l.4), “frozen” (l.7), “wind” (l.12), “flake” (l.12) and “dark” (l.13) accentuates the loneliness of the place because the coldness slows down nature until it is immobile, like the lake that is “frozen”. In other words, the speaker and his horse disrupt the loneliness of the woods that are not frequented, especially in winter.

As a conclusion, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” express an atmosphere of darkness and loneliness, which is supported by winter. The season accentuates this climate of an unlighted and isolated place that are the woods. With the snow and the wind, the speaker stops in the middle of the forest with his horse, that is personified and wonders about the situation, and it allows him to think deeply thanks to the silence that winter creates.