Robert Frost: Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost has given us volumes of beautiful poetry depicting American life in a unique way through the tool of prose.

When I was a teenager our church hosted a talent show. For Cortez, Colorado, which was a small community, we had an astonishing amount of talent. But the act I remember most that evening was my brother's musical composition of Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods on a Snow Evening.

He sat on the stage bent over his guitar as a spotlight shone on him. His beautiful tenor voice soared out over the auditorium and this poem forever found a place in my heart.

This song was never recorded, sadly, and so it lives only in my mind. Some day, I'll ask Cash, that would be my brother, to see if he can remember the melody he composed and record it. If so, I will post it on this blog. For I am very proud of that dear brother of mine.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
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.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

And moving away from my brother and back to Robert Frost. Those last three lines have echoed in my mind for thirty some odd years. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before sleep.

If you don't mind me taking a quick turn to religious thought. I know that promises were made in premortality. There are people that each of us promised to find and we promised to bring the gospel to them.

As I go through my daily life I often wonder if I run across the paths of anyone I made this promise to --- have I made the necessary choices to put me in the place where I can cross their paths?

I don't know. I know when I meet someone and there is an instant connection and the feeling swarms over me, I've known you my entire life - where have you been? Then I believe I have found someone to whom I made a promise or they made a promise to me.

And so, when those words ring in my mind, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before sleep, it is that which I keep in mind.

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Another families.com post I wrote: Compass to the World.