The philosophical gist of "Birches" begins in line 41, where the speaker identifies himself as a rural lad given to birch-bending. Now burdened with frustration characterized as a walk in a "pathless wood," a cobweb tickling the face, and a tearing eye that has met the lash of a limb, the speaker remains in the land of metaphor by envisioning an escape. To avoid an adulthood "weary of considerations," he pictures a respite — a swing outward from reality. Accentuating his point is the italicized word "Toward," which reminds the reader that the speaker isn't ready for heaven. Earth is his true home. Even with everyday miseries, being earthbound in "the right place for love" suits human nature.
In 1923, at the height of his appeal, Frost composed "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," one of America's most memorized poetic treasures. He wrote it about an early period of personal frustration and considered it his "best bid for remembrance." The rhyme scheme — aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd, like that in "The Pasture" — couples a flow of action and thought over four stanzas, ending in a gently repetitive refrain. Restful and placid, the action of watching woods being covered with snow is elusively simple. This simplicity is reinforced by the graceful yoking of tactile, auditory, and visual imagery with euphonious, drowsy -eep sounds in sweep, deep, keep, and sleep, and alliterated l sounds in lovely, sleep, and miles.
Dramatically, the poem builds to a climax and then makes its way down to resolution. At its heart, line 8 implies a tension: Is this the "darkest evening of the year" because it is December 22, the winter solstice, or because of some emotional turmoil in the viewer's spirit? Is the poem a veiled death wish? Whatever the reader's interpretation, the speaker reassures that a stock-still moment of contemplation of the "dark and deep" is normal and uplifting, for the figure decides to continue toward a preset goal or destination.
