Miles to go before I sleep” are the famous and often quoted lines from Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. This poem was a favorite of President John F. Kennedy and was also admired by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. These beautiful lines are also featured in movie titles like Miles to Go Before I Sleep.
Robert Frost was an American poet born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, California. He was a revered American poet of the 20th century, receiving the Pulitzer Prize four times. People admired him for his colorful depictions of rural life, portraying the lives of common people in New England. His command of American colloquial speech is also widely praised. He died on January 29, 1963, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Several of his poems yielded lines that went on to become indelible in the consciousness of the American people. This poem, in particular, can also be compared with William Wordsworth’s epic piece “Daffodils.” This poem was part of his first poetry collection named New Hampshire (1923), which became one of his frequently explicated works. His first poetry collection was A Boy’s Will (1913). It describes the solitary life of a traveller with his horse-drawn carriage.
The poem captures the relationship between man and nature and also highlights the conflict between wishes and obligations we quite often face in our lives. It brings out a subtle tension between the timeless attraction of nature and the pressing obligations of the present moment. The full poem is given here for appreciation by the lovers of poetry:
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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
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.
As we are occupied with the news of the presidential election, it can be a little comforting to read this small but inspiring poem admired by John F. Kennedy and Jawaharlal Nehru that drew relief and comfort for them. Why not do the same by reading and thinking about this classical verse of immortal Robert Frost?
