What does you have miles to go before you sleep mean?

Answer 1

This makes reference to a poem by Robert Frost called 'Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening', or something close to that.

The poem ends with:

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

I am not certain of the punctuation. Sleep is a reference to death, and the speaker is reminded of death by looking into a dark snow filled woods. He is saying that there is something appealing about rest, but he has a lot more to do before he is finished with life.

This is from memory, so there will be some mistakes that have crept in over the years:

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me standing here

To what 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.

Originally, many people thought that Frost was writing about Santa at Christmas. That seems a naive interpretation today. The poem was written decades before the word queer took on its current alternate meaning.