Death of Hired Man and Stopping by Woods

Frost Poems

“Death of a Hired Man” is a dramatic dialogue in which the two speakers reveal their personalities as well as the plot of the poem. Silas has been working for Warren and Mary as part-time help on their farm for a number of years. When he returns after having left before the harvest was finished the last time Warren hired him, Warren is reluctant to hire him and resentful of his return. Notice his complaint in Lines 16 – 18 about Silas not being dependable and his leaving “when I need him most.”

Also notice Mary’s responses that Silas wanted to earn his keep: Lines 19 – 21.  Then in Lines 33 – 44, it is clear that Silas is not well. She’d had to drag “him to the house.” Lines 60 – 105 deal with the value of college and education in general, based on an encounter years before between Silas and Harold, a young man who helped out between semesters in college. That kind of argument about what was more valuable, real life or books, was commonplace a hundred years ago.

Then the next section, Lines 113 – 125, deals with what “home” means. Mary and Warren have different ideas about what home is; it is a good time to think about what home is to you.  Finally in the last lines we learn what we have been expecting (because of the title) that Silas has died. Think about Silas’s position in life, the size of the footprint he left behind. Or not.

“Stopping by Woods,” one of Frost’s best-known poems, is a simple poem that moves quietly like water in a deep pool. You can’t see the whole depth at first.  Some critics suggest that the big idea here is the contrast of the world of people and sound and confusion to the world of nature and silence and beauty. Judging from the poet’s longing to stop and linger, nature and silence are much more attractive than society.

Other critics suggest that the desire of the poet to stay, rather than keep moving toward his obligations (“promises to keep”), implies a possible longing for death and eternity. The repetition of the last line does seem to suggest that the poet is trying to remind himself of the “miles to go.”

It does not matter whether some people think one thing or another because poems can have many layers and much to suggest varied interpretations. In other words, there is no real, right answer. As long as the reader can support his/her interpretation with the phrases and contexts of the poem, then, it is a valid interpretation.