“Desert Places” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Desert Places”

“Desert Places” Summary

“Desert Places” Themes

• 

  Humanity's Place in the Universe

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-16
• 

  Loneliness, Alienation, and Creative Anxiety

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Line 1
  • Lines 5-16

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Desert Places”

• Lines 1-4

  Snow falling and ...
  ... stubble showing last.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  The woods around ...
  ... includes me unawares.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  And lonely as ...
  ... nothing to express.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  They cannot scare ...
  ... own desert places.

  

  

  

  

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“Desert Places” Symbols

• 

  Snow

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-4
  • Line 6
  • Lines 9-12
• 

  Woods

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 5: “The woods around it have it—it is theirs.”

“Desert Places” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “falling,” “falling fast,” “fast”
  • Line 2: “field”
  • Line 3: “smooth,” “snow”
  • Line 9: “lonely,” “loneliness”
  • Line 10: “lonely,” “less”
  • Line 11: “blanker,” “benighted”
  • Line 12: “no,” “expression,” “nothing,” “express”
  • Line 13: “scare,” “spaces”
  • Line 14: “stars,” “stars”

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 6: “their lairs”
  • Line 11: “whiteness,” “benighted,” “snow”
  • Line 12: “no”
  • Line 15: “so,” “home”
  • Line 16: “own”

• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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  Where parallelism appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “Snow falling,” “night falling”
  • Line 12: “no expression, nothing to express.”
  • Line 14: “Between stars—on stars”

• Diacope

  

  

  

  

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  Where diacope appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “falling,” “falling,” “fast,” “fast”
  • Line 8: “loneliness”
  • Line 9: “lonely,” “loneliness”
  • Line 10: “Will be,” “lonely,” “will be”
  • Line 12: “expression,” “express”
  • Line 14: “stars,” “stars”

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Line 6: “All animals are smothered in their lairs.”
  • Lines 11-12: “A blanker whiteness of benighted snow / With no expression, nothing to express.”

• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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  Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

  • Lines 13-16: “They cannot scare me with their empty spaces / Between stars—on stars where no human race is. / I have it in me so much nearer home / To scare myself with my own desert places.”

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “fast / In”
  • Lines 9-10: “loneliness / Will”
  • Lines 13-14: “spaces / Between”
  • Lines 15-16: “home / To”

“Desert Places” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Stubble
• Lairs
• Absent-spirited
• Unawares
• Ere
• Benighted
• Desert

• (Location in poem: Line 4: “But a few weeds and stubble showing last.”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Desert Places”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Desert Places” Speaker

“Desert Places” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Desert Places”

More “Desert Places” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem, courtesy of The Frost Place.

  • The Poet's Life and Work — Read a biography of Frost at Poets.org.

  • More on Frost — A video biography of the poet.

  • Frost's Ideas About the World — Listen to a talk on "Frost as a Thinker" by poet Don Paterson.

  • Frost's Landscapes — A photo essay about the rural New England scenery that inspired much of Frost's poetry.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Frost

  • Acquainted with the Night

  • After Apple-Picking

  • A Roadside Stand

  • Birches

  • Design

  • Dust of Snow

  • Fire and Ice

  • Home Burial

  • Mending Wall

  • Mowing

  • My November Guest

  • Nothing Gold Can Stay

  • Out, Out—

  • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

  • The Death of the Hired Man

  • The Oven Bird

  • The Road Not Taken

  • The Sound of the Trees

  • The Tuft of Flowers

  • The Wood-Pile