Saturday, June 21, 2008

Miles To Go Before I Sleep...

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.
Robert Frost


I have a great collection of Robert Frost poems. Here’s one of his best known poem of all time. The woods are ominously tempting and acquire symbolic resonance in the last stanza, which concludes with one of Frost’s often-quoted lines, “Miles to go before I sleep.” One interpretation of this stanza is that the speaker is tempted toward death which he considers “lovely, dark and deep,” but that he has many responsibilities to fulfill before he can “sleep.”
Yes, we all make promises in life. We live to fulfill all our promises in the world. Till we fulfil our promises we cannot have an eternal sleep. We have to go miles and miles.Our lives changed forever that day for we closed one chapter in our book, of immaturity and naivety and opened another, to acceptance and profound responsibility. We have to face and fight for each and every day and with everything we have...We hope this will be the day the roads will open.
Indeed…I too have some promises to keep on my own. Even after the long distance that I have covered in the journey of life I feel I have never sulked, I have never shirked; I feel that a lot of things are still left undone and I must not stop. Life for me, as Robert Frost said, is a never-ending journey, a quest where there is never any stopping by the wood side. "I have miles to go before I sleep."
Every step I take, I will always defend, never pretend, but some how fear takes over and then everything goes wrong. When times are tough, the going rough; I have to be courage &strong. When enemies encircle me,i will have no fear. And I fill my life with love and joy and blissful delight .and I know that my words will always be honest with all of my love, this is my promise. My promise the one I will keep journey through life. Once again, as they had so many times in the recent past, the closing lines of the ancient poem by Robert Frost came whispering through my mind: But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep…

5 comments:

Lena said...

and may these miles be eventful and successful because there is so much to do in this life :)

i love reading your posts, though i dont get here often these days but i really enjoy your style :)

Jaishree Iyer said...

Thank you lena for your lovely comments.

Sameera Ansari said...

This is one of my favorite poems from school times! :)

Thanks for sharing it!

Jaishree Iyer said...

Thank you sameera this one of the favorite poem to me too.

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