Vocabulary in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

A word showing possession or ownership, used here to ask which person the woods belong to. It opens the poem with a quiet, reflective question rather than a direct address.

A small rural settlement, smaller than a town, where a few houses and perhaps a shop or two cluster together. Here it marks the owner as a townsperson, distant from this remote wooded spot.

A house on a working farm, typically standing alone in open countryside. The speaker notes there is no farmhouse nearby, making the stop feel especially isolated and unusual.

The set of straps, collars, and fittings buckled onto a horse so it can pull a vehicle. When the horse shakes it, the attached bells ring as a sign of the animal's unease.

Small bells attached to a horse's harness that jingle with the animal's movement. Here they serve as the horse's only way of signalling its puzzlement at the unexpected stop.

Strange or odd, out of the ordinary. The horse senses that stopping in the middle of nowhere, with no farmhouse in sight, is an unusual and puzzling thing to do.

Soft and light like fine feathers or fluff. Used to describe the snowflakes as they fall gently and settle without sound.

A single, light piece of snow. The word emphasises the delicate, quiet nature of the snowfall the speaker is watching.

A smooth, continuous movement across a surface or through the air. Here it describes the easy, unbroken motion of the wind across the frozen lake.

Deeply pleasing to look at or be near, stirring a feeling of quiet admiration or longing. The speaker uses it to express genuine attraction to the woods, not mere prettiness.

Without light, shadowy and hard to see into. Paired with 'deep,' it gives the woods a mysterious, almost absorbing quality that draws the speaker in.

Extending far inward, with no visible end. The word suggests the woods are vast and immersive, the kind of place one could get lost in.

Commitments or obligations made to other people that must be honoured. The speaker uses the word to remind himself of duties waiting for him back in the world of people.

A long distance still to be travelled before reaching one's destination. Used twice at the poem's close, it carries the weight of both a literal journey and a broader sense of duties not yet fulfilled.