An Analysis of a Poem:

The first 200 words of this essay...

An Analysis of a Poem: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Diction, Verb Tenses, Rhyme and Rhythm in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Diction (i.e. choice of vocabulary) The diction of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is extremely simple. None of the vocabulary is difficult or unusual, and most of the most of the words are short and plain, for example 'woods', 'house', 'snow', 'horse'. None of the descriptions, either of the setting, or the horse, is detailed or elaborate: the horse is simply, 'little'; the lake is 'frozen' (but we learn nothing else about it), and the only time more than one adjective is used to described anything is when we are told that the woods are: 'lovely, dark and deep'.

One major effect of such plain and simple diction is to give the poem a fairy tale quality. This is because, in fairy tales, the settings could be 'anywhere' and 'nowhere' in particular. Fairy tales tend to avoid describing their settings in great detail so that readers from any country and culture can identify with them, and can recognize and respond to the 'universe' significance of the situations in the