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Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010Frost: on
Hello: Would inserting "on" before "The darkest evening of the year" be irrelevant _ in meaning_? I mean, are the two versions perfectly equivalent and valid? Of course, it would disturb rhythm. --- Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening ... 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. ... Robert Frost, p. 224 http://www.ketzle.com/frost/snowyeve.htm --- Thanks. Marius Hancu > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Thanks. > Marius Hancu It wouldn't change the meaning. I think you're right; it's omitted to keep the rhythm.  SignatureCheryl > > Would inserting "on" before "The darkest evening of the year" be > > irrelevant _ in meaning_? I mean, are the two versions perfectly [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Between the woods and frozen lake > > The darkest evening of the year. > It wouldn't change the meaning. I think you're right; it's omitted to > keep the rhythm. Thanks. Marius Hancu >> > Would inserting "on" before "The darkest evening of the year" be >> > irrelevant _ in meaning_? I mean, are the two versions perfectly [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Thanks. > Marius Hancu I find it subtly effects the image, though: The wording without "on" suggests that "stopp[ing] without a farmhouse near between the woods and frozen lake" is part and parcel of it being "the darkest evening of the year", not just an incident that happens to take place on an evening that happens to be the darkest evening of the year. Maybe even that stopping there is what makes it the darkest evening--though that's a bit of a stretch. But, yes, the literal meaning is the same. One might even argue that Frost's omission of "on" is just plain ungrammatical, or at least exceptionally elliptical. Like (say): I dragged myself out of bed and crawled into the office somehow. Monday. Again. SignatureRoland Hutchinson He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba," ... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy. --Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ ) > >> > Would inserting "on" before "The darkest evening of the year" be > >> > irrelevant _ in meaning_? I mean, are the two versions perfectly [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > year. Maybe even that stopping there is what makes it the darkest > evening--though that's a bit of a stretch. Ah, you mean: My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake -- [that had to be] The darkest evening of the year. ? Interesting. Thanks, Marius Hancu >>> > Would inserting "on" before "The darkest evening of the year" be >>> > irrelevant _ in meaning_? I mean, are the two versions perfectly [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] >I dragged myself out of bed and crawled into the office somehow. >Monday. Again. Although I suspect that he omitted the "on" simply to make the line scan correctly, is it not common in AmE to omit the "on" in expressions like "I'm going home Thursday"? In BrE, it would normally be "I'm going home on Thursday". Maybe Frost was applying AmE to "On the darkest evening of the year"? SignatureIan >>>> > Would inserting "on" before "The darkest evening of the year" be >>>> > irrelevant _ in meaning_? I mean, are the two versions perfectly [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] >on Thursday". Maybe Frost was applying AmE to "On the darkest evening of >the year"? In that window on to Real Life BrE known as TV in the UK I notice the "on" being increasingly dropped by more youthful persons - presenters, etc, in their 20s or early 30s. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) |
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