But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
Genuine
Yes. In New Hampshire (1923), ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, stanza 4 (the final stanza); New Hampshire (1923), p. 87, said by the poem’s unnamed first-person traveller. These are the character’s words, not a statement in Frost’s own voice.
Checked against Robert Frost, New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1923; first edition, ‘Printed October, 1923’), ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, p. 87, p. 87, on a page scan.
- Work
- New Hampshire, 1923
- Where
- ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, stanza 4 (the final stanza); New Hampshire (1923), p. 87
- Source
- Robert Frost, New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1923; first edition, ‘Printed October, 1923’), ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, p. 87, p. 87
- Checked
- On a page scan
Researched by AI. Entry updated 23 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
About this quote
The scene
A traveller pauses with his horse beside woods filling with snow, away from a farmhouse. The horse shakes its harness bells; wind and falling snow are the other sounds. The final stanza sets the attraction of the dark woods against promises and a journey still to finish; the poem closes without narrating the traveller’s departure.
What it means
Rest and absorption in the woods are tempting, but obligations still call the speaker onward. The repeated final line makes the distance and the postponement of rest linger.
Often misread
The lines are often detached as a productivity slogan. Sleep can also suggest death, but the poem does not establish a suicide plan or make that the only reading; the literal journey and the promises remain in view.
Topics
Related quotes
- I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Henry David Thoreau
- ‘Men work together.’ I told him from the heart, ‘Whether they work together or apart.’
- Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson
- You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. (misattributed) C. S. Lewis
- I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become. (misattributed) Carl Gustav Jung
Sources
- archive.org/details/NewHampshireRobertFrost1923 (New Hampshire, New York: Holt, 1923, first edition: page images, p. 87)
- gutenberg.org/ebooks/58611 (Project Gutenberg e-text: public domain in the US only, not stored here)
- en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Frost
Cite it
Robert Frost, New Hampshire (1923), ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, stanza 4 (the final stanza); New Hampshire (1923), p. 87. Spoken by the poem’s unnamed first-person traveller. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/and-miles-to-go-before-i-sleep/ (23 October 2026).
Have a different wording, or a source we missed? Check it or submit it.
Do you hold the rights to anything on this page? Tell us.
Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
Comments