Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Daljit Nagra selects Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening β featuring the masterpiece by Robert Frost. From 2022.
Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ's poetry archive and selects Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Michael Symmons Roberts examines the lasting appeal and resonance of Robert Frostβs masterpiece.
A hundred years since he wrote it, the same basic truths still apply to the poem that the poet knew almost immediately would be his βbest bid for remembranceβ.
The poem is on one level immensely accessible, as welcoming and familiar as a Thomas Kinkade jigsaw puzzle. At the very same time, it is intensely strange and finally unfathomable, full of shadows and unanswered questions.
Who owns these woods that are so lovely dark and deep? Why is the speaker making such an urgent journey on βthe darkest evening of the yearβ, - and what exactly are the βpromisesβ the speaker has to keep?
In exploring these questions, Michael hopes to discover the ways and the reasons why a poem in which so little actually happens has lodged itself so firmly into the popular imagination.
In his quest, heβll be joined by poets Jen Hadfield and Carl Phillips, as well as ardent Robert Frost fan, Frank Skinner.
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Eloise Whitmore
A Naked production for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4, first broadcast in 2022.
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