• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The River Houses

A National Network of Local Homeschool Societies

  • Subscribe!
  • Home
  • Topics ▾
    • Arts & Music
    • Astronomy
    • Books & Libraries
    • Dewey Decimals
    • Friday Bird Families
    • Great Stars
    • Holidays & History
    • Language & Literature
    • Lunar Society Bulletins
    • Natural History
    • Photo Contests
    • Poems-of-the-Week
    • Quick Freshes
    • Research & News
    • States & Countries
    • Terms & Calendars
    • Weekly World Heritage
  • Calendars
  • Six Books
  • TWOC ▾
    • The Lunar Society of the River Houses
  • About Us ▾
    • Our Mascots
  • Friends
  • Shop!
You are here: Home > Homeschool Language & Literature > Poems-of-the-Week > This Post

🖋 ❄️ WONDERFUL WORDS: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

1 February 2023 by Bob O'Hara

Do your students know how to map out a poem’s rhyme scheme? Why not teach them this week with this easy example.

Frosty February is upon is, so our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the first week of the month is Robert Frost’s classic “Stopping by Woods,” a great read-aloud poem and a great poem for your young homescholars to memorize.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

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.

When you introduce your students to a new poem, especially one in a traditional form, take your time, and don’t worry about “getting” everything right away. A good poem, like this one, is a friend for life, and as with any new friend, it takes several meetings to get acquainted. Before you even start to think about meaning, take a look at the poem’s structure. How many lines does it have? Are the lines grouped into stanzas? How many lines in each stanza? How many syllables in each line?

“Stopping by Woods” is a great poem to use to teach about rhyme schemes because it has one of the tightest rhyming structures you’ll find in any well-known English-language poem. To map out a poem’s rhyme scheme, take a look at the end-of-line sounds and assign a letter to each one. For example, in the first stanza we have know–though–here–snow. Let’s call the “-ow” sound “A” and the “-ere” sound “B” — that makes the rhyme scheme of the first stanza AABA (know–though–here–snow).

Now take a look at the second stanza: queer–near–lake–year. See what Frost has done? He’s picked up the B sound (-ere) from the previous stanza and reused it in queer, near, and year. We can call the rhyme scheme for this second stanza BBCB (the “-ake” sound hasn’t appeared before, so we give it a new letter, C). The third stanza does the very same thing, picking up the C-sound and reusing it, and adding one sound more: shake–mistake–sweep–flake (CCDC). So far the first three stanzas are AABA BBCB CCDC, each one linked to the next.

How will Frost wrap the poem up in the fourth stanza? If he follows the pattern of the first three stanzas he’ll have one sound left over that doesn’t rhyme with anything. That doesn’t seem very desirable, so what he decides to do instead is pick up the D-sound (-eep) from the third stanza and rhyme it four times instead of three, bringing the whole work to a neat end: deep–keep–sleep–sleep (DDDD).

It’s very difficult to rhyme this many words in English and make the result sound natural and not overly contrived. That’s one reason Frost is regarded as a great poet. A good skater can do an axel jump; an excellent skater can do a double axel; and an Olympic skater can do a triple axel. A good poet can rhyme two words naturally; an excellent poet can rhyme three words naturally; and a world-class poet, like Frost, can rhyme four or even five words naturally, and give us a poem with this complete rhyme scheme: AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD.

What wonderful words and poetical productions have you been studying in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ Miles to go before I sleep: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. ❄️

❡ Literary lives: The website of the Poetry Foundation includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Robert Frost) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers. ✒️

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar to follow along with us as we visit fifty of our favorite friends over the course of the year, and add your name to our River Houses mailing list to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🗞

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy the educational materials we distribute each week, please support our work and the noble cause of homeschooling by making a small donation as a Friend of the River Houses! Your support keeps us going and growing! 😊

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related Posts:

  • 🖋 🍁 WONDERFUL WORDS: Song at the Beginning of Autumn🖋 🍁 WONDERFUL WORDS: Song at the Beginning of Autumn
  • 🖋 🌹 WONDERFUL WORDS: “The Frosts were her condition”🖋 🌹 WONDERFUL WORDS: “The Frosts were her condition”
  • 🖋 🦃 WONDERFUL WORDS: Delicious “Thanksgiving Magic”🖋 🦃 WONDERFUL WORDS: Delicious “Thanksgiving Magic”
  • 🖋 🍃 WONDERFUL WORDS: “Our Summer made her light escape”🖋 🍃 WONDERFUL WORDS: “Our Summer made her light escape”

Filed Under: Homeschool Language & Literature, Poems-of-the-Week

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!

It’s free! Your name and email address are never shared with any third parties.

CHECK YOUR INBOX (or spam folder) to confirm your subscription. Thank you! 😊

Search the River Houses

Recent Posts

  • HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS 🍝 Celebrating the Spaghetti Harvest in Switzerland
  • 🖋 ☔️ WONDERFUL WORDS: “Whan that Aprill…”
  • 🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for April
  • 🗓 ☔️ 🌸 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL APRIL from the River Houses!
  • 🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Larks and Swallows
  • 🌍 🇲🇦 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Archaeological Site of Volubilis in Morocco
  • HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS 🌸 Visit the Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C.
  • 🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 26 March 2023
  • 🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Wisconsin, Mongolia, Mozambique, and More
  • 🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Crows and Jays (Part II)
  • 🖋 🌱 WONDERFUL WORDS: Nothing Gold Can Stay
  • 🌍 🇲🇩 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Struve Geodetic Arc in Moldova
  • 🎵 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Happy Birthday Bach!
  • 🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – March 2023
  • 🗓 🌷 SPRING IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)

Post Topics

  • 🎵 Homeschool Arts & Music
  • 🔭 Homeschool Astronomy
  • 📚 Homeschool Books & Libraries
  • 💰 Homeschool Collections & Collecting
  • 📅 Homeschool Holidays & History
  • 📖 Homeschool Language & Literature
  • 🌕 Lunar Society Bulletins
  • 🗺 Homeschool Maps & Geography
  • 🏛 Homeschool Museums & Monuments
  • 🏞 Homeschool Natural History
  • 🗓 Quick Freshes for Homeschool Families
  • 🔎 Homeschool Research & News
  • 🌎 🇺🇸 Homeschool States & Countries
  • 🗓 Homeschool Terms & Calendars

Astronomy

  • American Meteor Society
    • – Fireball Reporting System
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day
  • Evening Sky Maps
  • Homeschool Astronomy (Sky & Telescope)
  • Hubble Space Telescope
    • – Learning Resources
  • NASA
    • – Asteroid Watch
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Our Solar System
    • – Spot the Station
    • – Webb Space Telescope
  • The Planets Today
    • – Light-Distance to the Planets
  • The Sky This Week (USNO)
  • Space Weather
  • Stellarium Night Sky Charts
  • Time and Date
    • – Eclipses
    • – Meteor Showers
    • – Moon Phases
    • – Seasons
  • Tonight’s Sky (hubblesite.com)
  • Virtual Planisphere

Books & Libraries

  • Baldwin Library of Children’s Literature
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • Classic Children’s Books (read.gov)
  • Folger Shakespeare Library
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Shakespeare’s Plays Online
  • HathiTrust Digital Library
  • In Our Time (BBC Podcasts)
  • New York Public Library Digital Collections
  • Project Gutenberg
  • US Library of Congress
    • – Children’s Book Selections
    • – Educator Resources
    • – LC Blogs
    • – LC Digital Collections
    • – Minerva’s Kaleidoscope
  • US National Archives
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Founders Online
    • – K–5 Resources
    • – Teaching With Documents
  • Vatican Library Digital Collections
  • WorldCat Library Catalog
    • – WorldCat Library Finder
  • World Digital Library

Museums, Parks, & Monuments

  • Art Collections Online
  • British Museum Collections Online
  • Google Arts & Culture Collections
  • Smithsonian Institution
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Smithsonian Museums
    • – Smithsonian Open Access
  • Timeline of Art History
  • US National Park Service
    • – Educator Resources
    • – National Memorials
    • – National Monuments
    • – National Parks
    • – Wild & Scenic Rivers Program
  • US National Wildlife Refuges
  • US State Parks
  • Watercolour World

Natural History

  • All About Birds (Cornell University)
    • – Bird Identification Guide
    • – eBird Online
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • BirdCast Daily Migration Maps
  • Time and Date
    • – Seasons
  • UC Museum of Paleontology
    • – Educator Resources
  • US Fish & Wildlife Service
    • – Education Programs
  • US Geological Survey
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Latest Earthquakes
  • US National Weather Service
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Nationwide Air Quality
    • – Nationwide River Conditions
    • – Wildfire and Smoke Map
  • Wild & Scenic Rivers Program

Maps & Geography

  • Antipodes Map
  • FlightAware (Planes in the Air)
  • Mapquest World Maps
  • MarineTraffic (Ships at Sea)
  • OpenStreetMap World Maps
  • Printable Blank Maps & Flags
  • Printable Outline Maps (d-maps.com)
  • River Runner
  • USGS Topographic Maps
  • World Heritage Sites (UNESCO)
    • – Educator Resources
  • Zoom Earth

Civics & Social Science

  • Bill of Rights Institute
  • Constitution Center
  • C-Span Classroom
  • Free Speech Curriculum from FIRE
  • Foundation for Economic Education
  • History of the Western World (I)
    • – Western World (II)
  • iCivics.org
  • Learn Liberty
  • Mises Institute Economics
  • MyMoney.gov
    • – Educator Resources
  • Online Library of Liberty
  • US Founding Documents
  • US Government Portal
    • – The Congress
    • – The Supreme Court
    • – The White House
  • US Mint
    • – Coin Activities for Kids
    • – Educator Resources
  • US Postal Museum
    • – Explore the Collections
    • – Activities for Kids
    • – Stamps Teach (from APS)
  • Visual Capitalist
Sign up for our free newsletter and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week!

All original content © 2017–2023 by The River Houses · The River Houses and the River Houses emblem are Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.