"The woods are lovely, dark and deep"

Frosty afternoon at Bolton Abbey
Walking to the Strid or to Barden Bridge on the estate of Bolton Abbey ranks as amongst the best pleasures in life. Even on cold days when icy trails of white decorate the trees and your feet feel numb. A recent walk reminded me of the enigmatic Robert Frost 1923 poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

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.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

The darkest evening of the year
Like all the best poetry, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening raises a series of questions in the mind and heart: Are the woods real or metaphorical? Who is “he”? Where is the village? Why doesn’t the voice think “he will not see me stopping here”? Why does the voice of the poem “stop…. Between the woods and frozen lake”? What do the harness bells signify?  Why does the horse think instinctively a mistake has been made? Why is "downy" flake descriptive but the wind mysteriously "easy"? What promises have to be kept? Is sleep the sleep following tiredness or the sleep of death? Is the “darkest evening of the year” literally the winter solstice (21st December) or an imaginary“darkest” evening personal to the narrator?