Everyone has a favourite Christmas song – or in my case a Christmas poem.
I was never a great fan of English, as a subject, at school. But that all changed when I was made aware of a poem, penned by the American poet Robert Frost – ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’.
It was written in 1922 and, from the instant of my reading it at the age of 15, the poem brought home an imagery and messaging around Christmas that will resonate inside of me always.
Christmas poem
There are many interpretations of the themes within the poem. Some say that it relates to a farmer returning home from market on the shortest day of the year, not having been able to secure the money needed to buy Christmas presents for his children.
Others believe it to be a version of the original Christmas story, centred on St. Nicholas as the narrator (the original Santa Claus). To be honest, that was the version of events that always struck home with me.
But I am not an academic. All I really know is that the wording of the poem chimes perfectly with the way that my brain works.
Mind you, I have walked through woods as the snow was falling and the eerie silence that accompanies the landing of the flakes is pretty amazing.
Maybe this is something to do with my liking for the poem. And let’s not kid ourselves, it also got me through the odd examination as well – back in the day.
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.