
No, I wasn’t bribed by an English teacher, though that would be nice. This is my favorite poem by far and probably my favorite ever piece of writing. It not only sums up procrastination in a helpful way, but also puts it to rest so much that I usually actually do my work afterward.
(I’m going to be referencing the poem, so please do to read at it (it’s really short, I swear.)) (I put it at the bottom)
There are two parts to this poem that make it great: its own ability to convey and how it shows this idea of putting off a task. I’ll explain what every piece of the poem does, because I think they’re all important (as they must be in so short a poem).
The first stanza of the poem do an incredible job building the scene. It immediately conveys where Robert Frost is and his relation to the place (he has an okay understanding of it). It shows that he’s secure in that no one will see what he does. The fact that he points to “watching woods fill up with snow” also establishes a slow, timeless pace that we’re missing today.
Procrastinating relies on a short term mindset, so this begins confronting it already. The woods filled up with snow, though, are clearly good, and often tools of procrastination are too. “Wasting” time is such a terrible way of talking about a fun activity.
The second stanza and its “darkest evening” sets the scene more and says how cold it is. It doesn’t stand out at first.
From there, however, the poem goes on to describe how cold it is in even more detail, and it suddenly dawned on me how uncomfortable the snow is, despite the woods looking nice. Not even the horses want to be there. This is the part I truly love about the poem: this false security is shown to be a lie. Sure, the speaker is enjoying the forest, but not the uncomfortable surroundings. Netflix just isn’t as much fun with a 1000 word essay due the next day.
The poem ends simply, with the mention of a promise and the words “Miles to go before I sleep” repeated twice. Sometimes you need to face problems head on, and simply admit that there’s much more to do before sleeping.