The poet Robert Frost‘s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was first published on this day, March 7, 1923, in the New Republic. Both it and the magazine have stood up well in the century that has passed. Frost said the poem came to him while watching the sun rise after working on another all night. He is remembered for a number of well-loved poems that many have put to memory, but he called this one “his best bid for remembrance.”
Like a classical composer, Frost used the tools of poetry so masterfully that a reader could fail to appreciate his craft in writing, but his use of meter and rhyme were subtle, simple and sure. You can follow the link above to trace the way he weaves his rhyme scheme through this one work to end with the couplet:
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
As I was thinking of this poem, I heard that a particular board game, Monopoly, is also a century old today. Adam Smith might consider it the greater creation of the two, but Frost’s gift is the greater remembrance for me.
