The poem is filled with metaphorical language, which is used for a number of different reasons. In the first line, the poet refers to “the suffering”. This is a metaphor for death, but the reader only realises this later. Auden, when talking about the elderly refers to death as “the miraculous birth”, which contrasts with the metaphor which follows it when the poet mentions children, when it is referred to as “the dreadful martyrdom”. The poet used these metaphor´s to make the reader think about the true meaning of his work and to show the different stages of human life and how a person´s opinion of death changes over time.
Frost was extremely emphatic on the simplicity of this poem, both in meaning and format. The poem can be seen to be about many things, but without argument one can say that it is about someone who has come to a fork in the road. This can be seen in the first two lines. The speaker acknowledges that he “could not travel both” as he attempts to peer down the road as far as possible to see what it will be like but it disappears in the horizon “where it bent in the undergrowth”(line 5). The speaker considers each road and comes to the conclusion that “the passing there/had worn them really out the same” (line 9/10).
Frost uses the metaphor of two distinct paths to represent two options in his life that he has to choose from. He uses vivid imagery within this metaphor to describe the differences and difficulties of these choices; the first path “having perhaps the better claim” (7) and the second “grassy and wanted wear” (8). Frost then chooses the less traveled path and ends the poem with the declaration that “that has made all the difference” (20). In addition, the paths opened themselves to Frost “in a yellow wood” (1), portraying that Frost has come to a crossroad in his life where he needs to pause and, in order to get any farther, also needs to make a choice between the two paths. The yellow represents both a need for an analytical and pensive pause, as well as the fraying and dying season as steps foot into a different one.
According to Knowles and Moon (2006) metaphor is used to “make a connection between […] two things” as there are some things we might “not understand […] except with the help of metaphorical models.” This may be evident in the war poems that use nature as a metaphor. For example, in The Falling Leaves, Margaret Postgate Cole uses the metaphor of “brown leaves” and “snowflakes” to portray the deaths of the soldiers in World War I. Cole compares the soldiers to “brown leaves dropping from their tree/In a still afternoon”. The leaves fell in a very unnatural manner as there was “no wind” to make them fall. This compares to the soldiers’ unnatural deaths as war is man-made so does not occur in nature. This is also shown when Cole says that they were “Slain by no wind of age or pestilence” as she is saying what killed the soldiers was not natural.
The nothingness and 'sublime vacancy' looms large through his poetry. This poem 'Lights Out' was written by Edward Thomas after he had been encouraged to meet with an American poet in 1913 named Robert Frost. He had been affected by depression and melancholy, this poem was written about two things – sleep and death. In the first stanza, Thomas talks about the coming of sleep or the 'borders of sleep'. The forest that is mentioned in line three refers to sleep making us lose our way and having very little control as sleep takes over us.
How do Eliot and Yeats write about hardship? Introduction- Eliot’s poetry explores themes of hardship, despair and sorrow. Poems such as ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘Prufrock’ present the unease that comes with hardship, yet the type of hardship experienced by the narrators of each poem contrast significantly. Yeats has a more Romantic approach to hardship, somewhat embracing it as a challenge that leads to discovering your true inner vitality. This is particularly evident in his poems; ‘A Prayer for Old Age’ and ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’.
Many of Tennyson's poems can be seen to support the view that his poems are 'merely obsessed with the dark and painful nature of the past' as many of them touch upon the dark subjects of death and isolation. For example, in his poem 'Break, Break, Break' there is a clear focus on the death of a close friend. However, another poem of his, 'Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal' is less nostalgic but could still be used in support of this statement. Similarly to one another, natural imagery is used throughout both poems, however their effects are contrasting. For example, in 'Break, Break, Break', Tennyson can be seen to use imagery from the sea to represent the strong distress he is feeling and his inability to express his emotions surrounding the topic.
A poet’s ability is not best judged on paper, but their skill in evoking emotion and encouraging contemplation within the reader. This being said, there are many ways to construe a text and with poems such as ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘Choose Something Like a Star’, the true meaning of the poem does not just lie within the words but is influenced by the reader’s context. Frost’s poetry is quite nonspecific and in that way rids the poem of his own personal baggage, its rather bare and the excellence of his words and phrases can only be appreciated once the reader’s own perspective has been cast upon it, layering it with their own meaning. Frost’s poems consist of understandable language that captures the thoughts of people who have a varied knowledge in literature, making him a feasible poetry study and one that I’m sure your students will come to love. A point of view in which ‘Fire and Ice’ can be interpreted as is completely literally.
The Road Not Taken Poetry Response Debra Davis People make decisions everyday more than once. I am making a decisons on what to write in this poetry response, and what I want it to say exaclty. The poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is a poem about decision making. Many think that he tells about how he took the road less traveled by, but that is not the case. "And looked down one as far as I could/ To where it bent in the undergrowth;/ Then took the other, as just as fair" Frost states from this excerpt of the poem that as he looks down both paths as far as he can, then he makes the decison on which one to take, which is just as fair as the other one.
The path that is traveled more often has a pretty clear outcome that keeps us inside our best state of mind, even though it may not be the best choice. In his explanation of the two roads, Frost shows us the importance of making a decision and how it could affect us later on in life. By viewing the two roads, the traveler finally makes up his mind, choosing the road that is more beautiful and less traveled. The traveler took the plunge, taking the road that had not been used as often as the other. Aware of how “way leads onto way” the traveler dislikes that he cannot take both roads.