What's a figure of speech used in the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"?
Often, people interpret sleep, in the final two lines, as a symbol for death. There is something very compelling and tranquil about this moment in the woods. The speaker watches the forest "fill up with snow" on this, the "darkest evening of the year." It is nearly silent, except for the sound of the "easy wind," and there is no one else around for miles and miles. He seems clearly to be on his way somewhere, but his attention has been arrested by the serene beauty of the woods. When he says that he has "promises to keep," he seems to be referencing his obligations: all of those things that keep him moving on when he'd really prefer to just stay here in this place, now. He says that he has "miles to go before [he] sleep[s]" twice, and the repetition makes it seem as though this idea carries extra significance. Sleep is often symbolic of death, and the narrator's longing to simply stay in the beautiful woods forever makes it seem as though he could be wishing to lay all his burdens down figuratively, in death, as well as literally, in sleep.
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