Note that the title contains the pun "evening," which means both post-sunset hours and a balancing or leveling. December 22, the shortest day of the year, is a traditional folk holiday that celebrates the equalizing of day and night. Beginning on December 23, winter begins its annual decline and days get longer as the seasons shift toward spring. After the speaker's pause, the morbid lure of snow-decked woods returns to an emotional balance as melancholy gives place to jangling harness bells and mental demands of "miles to go," which could refer to physical miles or unfinished tasks or responsibilities to family or job. The end of the ambiguous couplet, "before I sleep," could preface a night's rest or an eternal sleep — death — that concludes a satisfyingly challenged life.
"Departmental: The End of My Ant Jerry" is a verse animal fable. Composed by Frost when he was 62 years old, the poem takes its title from Rudyard Kipling's "Departmental Ditties" and demonstrates a blend of tweakish humor and mock-heroic form. The comic eulogy lauds the "selfless forager" in intentionally inept rhyme and a truncated rhythm that limps along in mockery of staid Homeric epic style. The elevation of Jerry, a victim of bureaucratic bumblers, visualizes him lying in state — embalmed in ichor and enshrouded in a petal — in the state's ennobling gesture to his role as citizen. Rigidly formal in style and protocol, the poem establishes the city's soullessness as the twiddly funeral director completes the ceremony in a semblance of decorum.
