Comprehension
What season and weather conditions form the setting of the poem?
What are winter and falling snow
This word describes the woods as beautiful and pleasing.
What is “lovely”?
This literary device uses descriptive details to help readers picture the snowy woods.
What is imagery
The speaker admires the woods but continues traveling because he has these.
What are responsibilities or obligations?
This sound pattern gives the poem a musical quality.
What is rhyme?
This animal accompanies the speaker and reacts to the unusual stop.
What is the horse?
In the poem, this word means strange or unusual.
What is queer
The woods may represent a peaceful escape from daily life. This is an example of this literary device.
What is symbolism
The speaker's attention to the woods suggests that he values this experience.
What are solitude, beauty, or peaceful reflection?
A group of lines in a poem
What is stanza
The horse seems to question the stop because this familiar landmark is absent.
What is a farmhouse?
This word suggests darkness, mystery, and considerable depth.
What is “deep”?
The description of the woods as “lovely, dark and deep” creates this emotional atmosphere.
What is a peaceful yet mysterious mood
The speaker's desire to stop and his decision to continue reveal this type of conflict.
What is an internal conflict?
The understood or implied meaning of a word or phrase
What is connotation
At the end of the poem, the speaker remembers this before he can rest.
What are his promises or responsibilities and the miles he still must travel?
This literary term describes language that appeals to the senses, such as the image of falling snow.
What is imagery?
The contrast between the silent woods and the horse's bells emphasizes this feature of the setting.
What is the stillness or quiet of the woods?
One universal theme is that people sometimes must balance personal desires with this.
What is duty or responsibility?
The literal definition of a word
What is the central tension in the speaker's experience?
The speaker admiration for the setting with what reminds himself of his responsibilities
This term describes a word or phrase with more than one possible meaning, such as “sleep” in the final lines.
What is ambiguity?
Interpreting “sleep” as both ordinary rest and a possible reference to death illustrates this feature of literary language.
Explain why it is reasonable to interpret the woods as an escape while avoiding the claim that this is their only possible meaning.
What is an interpretation supported by the imagery and the speaker's attraction to the woods, while recognizing that symbolism can have multiple meanings?
Name 3 different literary tools used in poetry that start with an "R".
What is rhythm, repetition, rhyme scheme and/or rhyme?