Running Head: POERTY ESSAY 1
POETRY ESSAY 5
When reading any type of literature it is always good to identify the main theme of the writer. The aim theme of writing can be based on the literal meaning or the hidden meaning. In most cases, writers use symbolism to present their thoughts. In poems, writers are known to use the contemporary life setting to reach out some thoughts that affect people’s lives. Other literary devices like irony and metaphors are employed to enrich the literature and to make it interesting to the reader.
The Road Not Taken
This poem is among the best ever written poems. It was composed by Robert Frost who is among the best poets in America. He is celebrated for his intelligent writings and adherence to language and ideas of representing psychological thoughts in portraits. The poem has been written to reflect a picture of two different roads at a junction where the writer faces a challenge in identifying which road to take. The roads seems similar but they are different and heading to different directions. The writer is in a dilemma of identifying the way to follow.
The poem in its contemporary setting is set in the wood. The speaker narrates that he was standing in the woods. The writer says that the roads looks alike with unequally overlaid with un-trodden leaves.in the first verse; “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost, 2002). This setting is symbolic in that we can identify the two roads with the choices we make life. The writer has to decide on the way to take; he comforts himself that he will take the other way later in life. However, he knows that getting the opportunity again for choosing the road might be difficult but he will overcome the challenge by reassuring himself that he took the road that is less travelled. We can say that the main theme of the poem is to enlighten the reader that life is about choices we make; life is a journey of dilemma where at every person’s stages of life, we have to choice from two convincing aspects which in most cases have great impact in our lives.
The poem uses a hopeful mood. The writer talks in hope that he knows that he will recreate the sight and claim that he took the road that is less travelled. He is also in hope that he will get another chance of choosing the way where he claims that he will choose the other road that he did not take the first time. The writer is optimistic he has a positive mind set in whatever he does. His choices the road that is less take n in the aim of making a difference in his life. He is hoping for a future where he will claim of having identified with the road that is less travelled.
The poem uses the rhyme device of writing. The poem has four stanzas with five lines in every stanza. The rhyme scheme utilized is ABAAB. The rhymes used are strict with notable exception of the last line in the stanzas. The last words in all the stanzas also create a rhyme by alternating sound similarity; for example in the first stanza, “wood, both, stood, undergrowth”.
The title of the poem; The Roads Not Taken does not have a significant meaning from the poem. The title has been very contradicting to most of the readers of the poem where in most cases readers are not keen to identify the irrelevance of the title from the poem’s explanations. The poem illustrates that both of the roads are not travelled. Therefore, the poem would be called the ‘roads not taken” since neither of the roads are less travelled by (Frost, 2015). This is clear from the third stanza that says that; “and both that morning equally lay, in leaves no step had trodden black”
The poem has an archetypal dilemma. This is the catching point of the reader where one first identifies the dilemma of two roads where on has to choose on which road is good. In both the literal meaning and figurative, individuals face different dilemmas in life. The writer uses the roads analogy to explain any two dilemmas in life where people have to make a critical choice. The paths in the woods and that in the forks are deep seated metaphors used to mean the various crises that human beings face in making the decisions. The writer explains the free will for human beings to choose the road of their choice without any kind of limitation. The roads are identical to show that we are at risk to identify the road to success or towards fate. The poem does not suggest on how to choose the roads. That means the human beings need to have the freewill to choose on themselves.
The poem uses an ironic tone. The writer is anticipating on the future; in the last stanza, “I shall be telling this with sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence “(Frost, 2015). The writer is also worrying or he is concerned of the other path. He says that he will take the other path once he get an opportunity. Therefore, he is not sure of which road is best to be taken thus there is no right path. The poem describes the narrator’s experience in making a decision from a dilemma while using a metaphorical explanation.
Conclusively, the narrator’s attitude towards the subject matter in the poem is that he optimistic. He is hopeful of a successful future despite facing a dilemma in making the decision. He says that he will be narrating in the future of the road taken which made all the difference.
Frost, R., (2015). The road not taken and other poems. Penguin.
Frost, R., (2002). The road not taken: a selection of Robert Frost’s Poems: Macmillan