Just two lines later, however, Frost satisfies the reader's need to hear by using onomatopoeia to suggest "the only other sound's the sweep of easy wind and downy flake" (Frost 11-12). By continuing to describe the woods as "lovely, dark and deep," followed by the repeated lines, "and miles to go before I sleep," Frost closes the poem with a mysteriously beautiful picture of the woods before lulling the reader to sleep through repetition (Frost 16, 19-20). Thus, Frost's literal description of a simple event qualifies this poem as a piece of good literature as readers, carried by the end rhyme, experience the silence of the woods on a winter night.

This pleasant scene has a function other than provoking beautiful imagines, however. The repeated last line, "and miles to go before I sleep" paired with preceding, "but I have promises to keep" suggests that the poem was a pause...
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