...Poetry Analysis Essay for “Road Not Taken” By: Robert Frost Course # and Title: ENGL 102: Literature and Composition Semester of Enrollment: Spring 2012 Name: Timothy Bayless ID #: L22915807 Writing Style Used: MLA Timothy Bayless L22915807 ENGL-102 C04 Poetry Analysis Essay Outline I. Introduction A. Facts: Robert Frost thought a poem should start with delight but end in wisdom and has also won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times. B. Title and Author: “The Road Not Taken” By: Robert Frost C. Thesis: The poem displays the difficult decisions people make in order to progress in life and how one choice can alter the future for better or worse. II. Body A. Meaning and Message i. Surface Meaning: A person comes to a “y” in the road and has to decide which way to go. ii. Deeper Meaning: Internal debates are overwhelming when deciding what the right decision to make is. iii. Theme: The choices made in life can alter the future for better or worse. B. Tone i. The person speaking in the poem seems to have a certain level of maturity and it shows in the debate about which road to take. ii. The tone of the speaker is solemn in nature. iii. The reason the tone seems solemn is because the speaker is left with...
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...Robert Frost and Shaun Tan use different mediums and techniques in order to represent similar ideas about journeys. Journeys can lead to self-growth. Choice, change, discoveries and new experiences can all result in having undertaken a journey. Shaun Tan and Robert Frost have each explored these ideas in their texts The Arrival and The Road Not Taken. In Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken, Frost conveys his perspective on the journey through the use of a variety of language techniques. Journeys involve choices, which can slightly or significantly alter the paths we take in life as the poem consists of two roads which metaphorically represent choices. “ Two roads diverged ... and that has made all the difference” demonstrates how the author has learned to take responsibility for the choices he has made in life and is content that choices make who we are. Robert Frost uses several techniques such as metaphors, repetition and symbolism. Repetition displays the character’s frustration towards making choices and symbolism shows the unseeable end to this path being taken. The main technique used is metaphor as the whole poem represents the journey of life and the choices that are a part of it. The journeys in life we take can lead to choices that change our life forever. Throughout a journey an individual must make a variety of choices. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost clearly shows the composer’s thoughts on making choices throughout a journey. In the first stanza of the...
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... Introduction Robert Frost’s “The Road not Taken” is probably the most well-known Poem in American Literature. Taught in high school English classes across the nation and studied by generations of professional scholars. Readers have the belief that “The Road not Taken” was speaking of a cross roads in Frost life. That he had to choose which path to follow and the one he took was “less traveled by”. The poem misleads you; in fact neither of the roads is less traveled by. II. Back up my theory a) “diverged in a yellow wood” – sets the location- yellow wood is only found in isolated locations across the south eastern U.S. -forest areas. b) “was grassy and wanted wear”- had not been stepped on or used. He speaks as if the woods needed someone to cross. c) “had worn them really about the same”- both roads were the same, neither was better than the other. d) “both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black”- sets the season which could be early spring cause in the woods leaves are always on the ground. Trodden black was term used for crushed down by ones feet. III. Analysis of the Poem a) Literal setting – woods or forest b) Literal situation – author was alone and leaving away from something c) Mood of Poem- sad and melancholy d) Author has opinion – we are free to choose but do not know what we are choosing between. IV. My personal thought / conclusion The attraction to this poem from generations to generation is the dilemma the Frost gives us. The path...
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...Literary Analysis of “The Road Not Taken” 1920 by Robert Frost COURSE NUMBER: ENGL-102 COURSE TITLE: Composition and Literature SEMESTER OF ENROLLMENT: Summer 2011 NAME: Kevin G. Blascoe ADDRESS: 1031 Bradford Park Road Mount Juliet, TN 37122 Blascoe 2 Kevin G. Blascoe ENGL102 Professor Terri Washer 11 June, 2011 As the world gets older and people reflect the decisions of their lives, there is one thing perfectly clear in each individual: there is no correct interpretation in regard to the choices that each person has thought and acted upon as it relates to their own live’s and circumstances. Outline of Literary Analysis I. Introduction A. General theme and background B. Introduce “The Road Not Taken” C. Re-address thesis statement II. Description of the literal scene and situation 1. Mood 2. Metaphorical or symbolic implications 3. Analysis of title 4. Rhythm patterns 5. Scansion and technical methods 6. Theme and methods used to communicate theme III. Conclusion A. Summary of poet’s existentialistic philosophy Blascoe 3 Life constantly...
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...ROBERT FROST Born on the day of March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, California, Robert Lee Frost was one of America’s most famous poets. Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes before he died in 1963. The first one in 1924 for New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes, then in1931 for Collected Poems, in 1937 for A Further Range, and the last on in 1943 for A Witness Tree. Married to Elinor Miriam White, who was his co-valedictorian at high school, he lived in various locations throughout his life, in San Francisco, California for the first ten years of his life, then moved to New England where he lived most of his years; he also lived in Great Britain for three years where he met Edward, T. E. Hulme and Ezra Pound. Pound would become the first American to write a review of Frost's work; it was also in England that Frost wrote some of his best work. Robert Frost attended Dartmouth College, where he stayed for a little over a semester, and also Harvard University for two years. Robert Frost grew up in a state of turmoil. From his tumultuous childhood right up until his death, Frost was a character who could speak at Harvard and live on a farm in New Hampshire. He could dazzle the brightest students with poetic ingenious, but boil life down to, “It’s hard to get into this world and hard to get out of it. And what’s in between doesn’t make much sense. If that sounds pessimistic, let it stand”. Robert Frost’s poems “Mending Wall” and “The Road Not Taken” both exemplify the struggle...
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...The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost English 102 B23 Liberty University 16 June 2014 The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost A stylistic and exploratory analysis of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” uncovering the message from the work received by a diverse audience. There are a few themes in the poem The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost. The author communicates that he is faced with a choice to take one path or another and faces apprehension, hesitation, fear, indecision and regret as he is faced with the choice. While exploring the poem it seems that at first glance the author may be celebrating his choice of taking the road less traveled “took the one less traveled by” but in realty he is in a sense moving forward while looking back with the title being “The Road Not Taken”. This indecision is counter productive making him unable to live his life but to waste it away in indecision. The author communicates the difficulty of choices in life and the ability to have two different paths that can seem paralyzing from fearful uncertainty, which can lead to regret from indecision. The fear, possible regret, uncertainty, indecision and stagnation seems to be the tone of the poem. The poem is set in nature during fall with autumn leaves “in a yellow wood” piled on the ground from falling a while “leaves no step had trodden black”. The falling leaves pointing to time passing, two roads pointing to a choice at hand, the bend with the undergrowth as the uncertainty, the worn...
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...Frost, Where the Road Brings Us #201337029 English 1080 Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” both portray similarities in themes of the weight of realities, while taken place in a setting of nature. Each are about experiences in life in “The Road Not Taken” the speaker is youthful, making the decision to last a lifetime metaphorically portrayed by an autumn forest. He must overcome his mentality to succumb from the more beaten path in a road, showing his uniqueness to take the other. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” where as Frost uses an older speaker, more grizzled and experienced in life. The speaker also experiencing a choice, seeking a life without struggle in isolation he then reflects upon his responsibility towards the society. In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, the speaker stumbles upon a choice that will effect him forever. The poems talk of the speaker coming to a fork in his path, whereas now he has to choose one way or the other. This intersection in the road is a metaphor to all the decisions we have to make in life, and how easily it could alter with just by starting down a new path. The speaker thinks about his choices and feels that whatever path he takes; he will have to take for good. The speaker feels strongly that he must think really hard upon what path to take, so he doesn’t end up regretting his choice. “And looked down the road as far as I could...
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...Poetry Essay ENGL 102: Literature and Composition Spring 2012 Student Name Student# WRITING STYLE USED MLA Student Name Professor English 102 22 April 2012 Analysis of Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken” Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road not Taken” is a lyrical poem that describes the author’s thoughts when he comes to a fork in the road and the difficult decision of which path to take. It is a closed form poem with a rhyming scheme of “ABAAB” with 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The fork in the road symbolizes decisions individuals make in life. With his used of mood, symbolism, setting, and imagery, Robert Frost describes the dilemma of decision making and how those decisions play a part in one’s future choices. The poem can be used to describe how an individual decides to follow Jesus Christ, the faith that it requires to do so, and the result of giving your life to Him. The poem begins with “Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood”, symbolizing the different choices individuals have in life. The author explains to the reader that the decision is weighed out carefully and not hastily. Even as the author talks of trying to look down the road as far as possible, there is no sure way of seeing what is at the end. This symbolization can also be used to describe the way people try to make difficult decisions. Even though they may try to intelligently predict the outcome, these tough choices rarely have the answer easily found and requires...
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...more of the times which intensified after World War I. The desire for the importance of literature in the modern world was the typical belief of most modernist writers, which included Frost. Robert Frost is a modern poet due to his poetry having been awarded with the mindfulness of the problems of man living in the modern world. Science and Technology were dominating the modern world of the times. Frost was quoted to say "The object in writing poetry is to make all poems sound as different as possible from each other. But for this, in addition to the tricks any poet knows, we need the help of context--meaning--subject matter. That is the greatest help towards variety. All that can be done with words is soon told. So also with meters. . . . The possibilities for tune from the dramatic tones of meaning struck across the rigidity of a limited meter are endless. And we are back in poetry as merely one more art of having something to say, sound or unsound. Probably better if sound, because deeper and from wider experience." (VanDoren). His ideas of keeping with himself are seen in his poetry throughout his life. “Mending Wall” is the first work in Frost's second book of poetry, “North of Boston,” which was published upon his return from England in 1915. While living in England with his family, Frost was...
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...of the times which intensified after World War I. The desire for the importance of literature in the modern world was the typical belief of most modernist writers, which included Frost. Robert Frost is a modern poet due to his poetry having been awarded with the mindfulness of the problems of man living in the modern world. Science and Technology were dominating the modern world of the times. Frost was quoted to say "The object in writing poetry is to make all poems sound as different as possible from each other. But for this, in addition to the tricks any poet knows, we need the help of context--meaning--subject matter. That is the greatest help towards variety. All that can be done with words is soon told. So also with meters. . . . The possibilities for tune from the dramatic tones of meaning struck across the rigidity of a limited meter are endless. And we are back in poetry as merely one more art of having something to say, sound or unsound. Probably better if sound, because deeper and from wider experience." (VanDoren). His ideas of keeping with himself are seen in his poetry throughout his life. “Mending Wall” is the first work in Frost's second book of poetry, “North of Boston,” which was published upon his return from England in 1915. While living in England with his family, Frost was exceptionally homesick...
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...Analyzing Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’ “Every life is a march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.” Lyman Abbott In the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ Robert Frost toys with the ideas of innocence and experience that one can relate to in his or her own life by the choices they have to make in their day to day lives. Like his other works that explore fundamental questions of existence, depicting the loneliness of an individual in an indifferent universe, the poem ‘The road not taken’ explores a man’s uncertainty to choose from two paths that lay before him. In the following article I shall present a close analysis of Frost’s poem and how it can relate to one’s life. Most people have come across a time where they have to make a decision between two figurative roads. Not sure where to go and unaided, they might choose the road that would take them to the place where they want to go or the road that takes us somewhere new, but either way the path we choose takes us to where we are now. In life situations where we have to choose from different metaphorical paths such as which college to join, which house to buy, etc. there exists a road we took that got us where we are and a metaphorical road not taken. While making such decisions we come across the big question of whether to take the well beaten path or be non-conformists and take the less travelled route. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is all about these quandaries present in every person’s life. The...
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...Pal-Agrawal February 13, 2012 “The Road not Taken” and “A Worn Path” Different but the Same Whether reading a short story or a poem, there is always a story to be found within. The authors of these scripts are able to capture readers with the utilization of characterization, rhythm, or a fairytale setting throughout their narrative. It is imagination that sanctions the reader of these literary forms to be able to mentally visualize what the author would like the reader to visually perceive by use of symbolism or descriptive wording. A short story and poem, no matter how structurally different are two literary pieces where a rich story is embedded. Readers are drawn towards these scripts by means of rhythm (poem), characterization, or a fictional setting in their respective narratives. However, the mere script would not make it entertaining enough. It would depend on the imagination of the readers as they are reading the literary script. Every reader has their own way of visualizing the descriptions and symbolism used by the author. In the poem “The Road Not Taken” or short story “A Worn Path.” – There is a prevalent theme. No matter what solitary journey we find ourselves on, ‘we’ determine how the journey ends. “Do not follow where the path may lead... Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."-Robert Frost Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their...
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...it being late or falling behind. We all face the decision on which path(s) to choose in life. Robert Frost’s 1916 poem “The Road Not Taken” demonstrates how the poet emphasizes ambiguity, which is “the use of language that has more than one meaning, creating uncertainty about how to interpret what has been stated,” (Clugston, 2010) that is associated with life choices. He also uses a metaphor, which is “an image that imaginatively compares one thing with another, showing how each has qualities that resemble the other,” (Clugston, 2010) by comparing the two roads with life choices of right or wrong. This poem captured my interest because it represents the decisions people make every day and the after effect that these choices may have on one’s life. In this essay I will use the formalist approach, which is “most widely used in literary criticism; it focuses on the form and development of the literary work itself,” (Clugston, 2010) to better explain my analysis. The poem is made up of four stanzas that include five lines each and the rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAAB. Although this is a short poem that does not take away from the fact that it has powerful meaning. People may never know the true meaning behind Robert Frost’s famous poem, “The Road Not Taken” but we all have our own opinions, beliefs and interpretations. Stated in Washington Times, “In the 44 years since [Robert Frost]'s death in 1963, much has been made of the elusiveness of his poetry as if he were hiding a lot...
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...have chosen that I feel deserve a detailed analysis are 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost and 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke. Robert Lee Frost was quite simply, one of America's leading 20th century poets. It could be because he wrote poems about rural life, drawing a distinct contrast between its innocence and peacefulness , and the depression and corruption of city life. It could also be because he used traditional verse forms that were understood by one and all. It might even be that people sensed his step forward in the direction of modernizing the interplay of rhythm and meter while writing exactly how people spoke. His poetry has been called traditional, experimental, regional, universal and even pastoral. And on the other hand Robert Chawner Brooke was an English poet know for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War. He was also known for boyish good looks. He was an established and rising poet with a strong academic reputation, important literary friends and potentially career changing political links. The reason why I have chosen 'The Road Not Taken' is because this poem deals with the choices we must make in life and the consequences of those choices. Frost is making an allegorical statement that basically says "there is no need to follow the steps of others". Often in life we are asked repeatedly to choose from a series of decisions that are based on the decisions that others before us have taken. That, would be the "known path", or the...
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...Robert Frost (1874-1963) was the leading modern American poet of nature and rural life. He found beauty and meaning in commonplace objects, such as a drooping birch tree and an old stone wall, and drew universal significance from the experiences of a farmer or a country boy. Most of his poems have a New England setting and deal with the theme of man's relationship to nature. The influence of nature in Robert Frost's works creates a palette to paint a picture filled with symbolism for the reader to interpret. In the analysis of Frost's The Road Not Taken, Tree At My Window, Two Trumps In The Mud Time and Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening we can pick out specific examples to illustrate Frost's overall use of nature. In the first stanza of Robert Frost's Stopping by the Woods on A Snowy Evening we find the speaker reflecting on the beauty of a wooded area with snow falling. 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. You can feel the speakers awe and reflective peace when looking into the woods that night. He doesn't know the owner of the land but is still drawn to the beauty of the scene. Nature poet Robert Frost gives a scene that is taken into the reader and digested for a time in the speaker's mind. It shows us that it is all right to take a minute out of a hurried hour and reflect upon what is around you, whether it is a snowy wood or a quite room....
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