...Outline Thesis: In “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost uses imagery, metaphors, and the theme to tell the reader what has made the difference. I. Frost uses imagery to show the reader how decisions change fate. A. Visual imagery was used to show how bright his future is. B. Without Frost using imagery, the reader would not have understood why the decision was so important. II. The poem was an extended metaphor. A. The description of autumn is a metaphor for Frost’s fall in life, growing old. B. The roads are a metaphor for the future. C. “I doubt I should ever come back”, Frost was making this line a metaphor for one a person make a choice, they can’t take it back. III. Theme is centered around choices. A. Paths represent choices in life. B. Frost Talks about one path more but still chooses the other. Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” uses figurative roads to show readers how choices impact ones daily life. The poem begins with the narrator standing at a fork with two available roads ahead. Even though he explains how one path looks, he chooses the opposite path. Then changing his mind, to say the paths could be the same, but at the end says he took the less traveled by. Most of the time, the decisions people have to make are not easy or even logical. In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses imagery, metaphors, and the theme to tell the reader what has made the difference (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). Frost uses imagery to show the reader...
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...The road not taken written by Robert Frost in 1916 is one of Frosts most well known poems. The road not taken consists of four stanzas each containing five lines and follows the rhyme scheme ABAAB. Frost used a variety of literary techniques, combined with simple language to make the road not taken so easy to relate to. the road not taken focuses on the narrator who reaches a fork in the road where he must decide on which path to take. the narrator hoses the path that he considers to be less traveled. this poem acts as an extended metaphor for difficult life decisions. From this poem the reader can interpret that frost is trying to convey the message that no matter which decision you make there is always a chance that it is the wrong one. From the last lines of the poem "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference" the reader can also interpret that Frost is trying to say that making the right decision can have a huge impact on life. For the road not taken Frost was able to have a very large intended audience with the use of simple, easy to understand language and the relevance to everyday life. Frosts intended audience is anyone who has decisions so make but is indecisive about those decisions. The road not taken was written in 1916 shorty after Frost had moved back to America, Frost was 42 at the time. According to Emerson media (n.d.) it is believed that Frost wrote this poem due to regretting a decision made in his life. Frost uses past tense...
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...Robert Frost, born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco. As it says on poet.org about Robert Frost, He became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1892, and later at Harvard University in Boston, though he never earned a formal college degree. Some of Robert Frost’s poems I’m using are Fire & Ice, The Runaway, and The Road Not Taken and how he uses the three literary elements such as Implied Metaphor, Personification, and Extended Metaphor to create the theme of Hatred, Desire, and Making Choices can lead to Freedom. Starting it off, Fire & Ice, published on December 1920. Robert Frost uses Implied Metaphor in the poem. Example in the poem are, “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From What I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for...
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...take his job over anything. This poem has a little bit of rhyme scheme and rhyme. The poetic devices are repetition and personification. The repetition is how they are repeating over and thorough. The personification is the cowslips tall her pensioners are, in their gold coats spots you see. The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost (contains Imagery & Rhyme Scheme don’t know how to say it) “ The Road Not Taken ” by Robert Frost is about a ‘ Road ’. The Road is used as a metaphor and as an extended metaphor of choices we have to make in life. The form in the road is used as a metaphor throughout the poem, it is termed as an extended metaphor in line 6 where the person is thinking of taking one road but takes another. This could be a metaphor for thinking of your choices before deciding. This could be a metaphor of making decisions during the fall of your life or when you are getting older. In the beginning, the woods are yellow meaning in the autumn. Nature is also used as a metaphor in the poem. A poetic device used in this poem is personification: “ Because it was grassy and wanted wear ” He means, The grass wanted wear but the grass does not have feelings or needs, so...
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...or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door (Gibbs,1). In life we take so many different paths are taken. Some paths that are shown are harder to choose from than others. In the poem, The Road Not Taken, the theme of the poem shows that there are paths in life that we can decide to take and it can define our lives forever and Robert Frost portrays this using symbolism, metaphors, and allusion. Symbolism is used in this poem to portray the difficulty of which paths to take. This can be shown when he says, Two roads diverged in a wood (Frost, line 18). Altogether it is symbolized as if he was in the woods and there were roads that could be taken to lead to different places. The woods is the author's life and the paths are the different paths that could be taken when living his life. The fact is that all these roads lead to there own separate destinations. Towards the end he takes the path that is not really used by others which makes a big difference in his life....
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...March 26, 2015 An Extended Metaphor: Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” In Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”, it explores the aspects of human decisions and choices, corresponding to an oxymoron because choices that impacts so little should bear the most indifference, but instead it is the most complicated. It is shown through several different techniques such as metaphors, symbolism, repetition, and his writing style. Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco but soon moved to Pennsylvania (Robert). His dad died when he was around the age of eleven years old. Frost lived with sister who was two years younger and his mother. During his college years, he enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and later at Harvard University in Boston. He had multiple occupations such as a teacher, cobbler, and editor. His first poem, “My Butterfly,” was published on November 8, 1894 in the New York Newspaper. Later in his life, he married Elinor Miriam who inspired many of his pieces. He became well known for “the life and landscape of New England” but isn’t a regional poet because his works are “infused with layers of ambiguity and irony” (Robert). He died on Jan 29, 1963 in Boston (Robert). “The Road Not Taken” is about a person in the woods who comes across a fork with two roads. He states that the two roads are equally worn with untroddler leaves. However, in the second stanza it states that one road is “perhaps the better claim” and “it was grassy and ...
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...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 comfortable...
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...Making choices in life has proved to be universally difficult. Everyday people make choices that could impact their whole lives. In The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, the speaker utilizes an extended metaphor, and repetition to convey the speaker’s thoughtfulness and understanding attitude towards making decisions, and how the reader should understand the power that decisions have on their future. As a whole, the poem itself is one extended metaphor, using the choice between two paths to display everyday choices indirectly. Everyone, including myself, has to make decisions. AS a senior, one has to figure out what the future is going to hold. Questions such as “university or trade school?” help the young reader connect to the “two roads”...
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...THESIS: “The Road Not Taken” discusses the choices humans make in life and how these choices may or may not affect the entirety of one’s life. I. Introduction A. The impact and influence decisions make one one’s life II. Body A. Relationships 1. Life altering decisions 2. Real Life situations B. Metaphors 1. Used to provide insight about the writer 2. Used to make the reader compare the decisions made C. Punctuation 1. Used to emphasize the decision making process 2. Used as a form of symbolism D. Title Significance 1. Reinforced the fact that there is always more than one decision 2. Reinforced the fact that there will always be doubt about those decisions III. Conclusion A. Lyrical Elements 1. Writer starts in the past tense 2. Finally writer shows contentment with the decision to take the road less traveled B. Title supports the Overall Meaning of the Poem “The Road Not Taken” Decisions are tasks we inquire in all that we do. From the time that we are conceived to the time that we leave this world, decisions are either made for us or by us which impacts our lives. “The Road Not Taken” discusses the choices humans make in life and how these choices may or may not affect the entirety of one’s life. In this poem, Robert Frost, brings to life the challenges humans face when making decisions. The person in this poem is traveling and happens upon “two roads diverged”...
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...The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claimBecause it was grassy and wanted wear,Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I marked the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost Symbolism and Theme in Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” High school graduation motivational speeches and even inspirational quotes often contain words from Robert Frost`s famous poem, "The Road Not Taken". "It is a beautiful poetic statement of bold independence and personal innovation". Whichever choice is taken in life, one will always wonder what possibilities the other choice may have held. Frost's setting and scene are imbued with symbolic meaning. The first stanza opens up with the line "The roads diverged in a yellow wood" (Frost 1). The use of the word "yellow" could demonstate either spring or fall- a calm time of the year. Lives are like roads, with split paths representing...
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...Imaginative Journey Notes: The Stimulus Booklet 1.The road not taken: - Robert Frost o Imaginative Journeys allow us to explore future possibilities through speculation o Extended metaphor of the ‘road’ used to express both past and future decisions and actions. Frost describes using the imagination in times of indecision to explore the consequences of possible choices. – “…long I stood /And looked down one as far as I could” o Each of the four stanzas characterises one stage of this process of speculation and decision. The first has an optimistic tones created by colour connotations of ‘yellow wood’ and the suggestion of transience and movement through its flowing structure with the repetition of ‘and’ - ‘And sorry I could not travel both /And be one traveller, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could’. o “Yellow wood also indicates that it may be the beginning of autumn, which could symbolise the sense of change and possibility at the turning of the season. o The second stanza suggests indecision as the composer chooses a path that ‘wanted wear’ and therefore carries less clear consequences. Taking the path that he knows or even imagines to understand less is a courageous decision, but the composer appears uncertain, using low modality language such as ‘perhaps’ and ‘really about the same’. o The third stanza expresses regret at the opportunities lost by choosing one path over the other. Imaginative journeys can conceive of multiple possibilities at once...
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...willows and maples have this temporary gold hue. In only a few days, the leaves mature to green. Figurative Language Figurative language uses "figures of speech" - a way of saying something other than the literal meaning of the words. For example, "All the world's a stage" Frost often referred to them simply as "figures." Frost said, "Every poem I write is figurative in two senses. It will have figures in it, of course; but it's also a figure in itself - a figure for something, and it's made so that you can get more than one figure out of it." Cook Voices p235 Metaphor A figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things essentially unalike. To Frost, metaphor is really what poetry is all about. He is notably a poet of metaphors more than anything else. This is so important, we should hear directly from the poet. Frost said," Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors, 'grace metaphors,' and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have. Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. People say, 'Why don't you say what you mean?' We never do that, do we, being all of us too much poets. We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections - whether from diffidence or from some other instinct". ... Excerpt from an essay entitled "Education by Poetry" by Robert Frost. Examples: The Silken Tent. A woman is admired for her strength and beauty, like a silken tent. Note the strength of the silk and cedar...
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...have lost their way in greed and materialism. They gained their listeners attention by drastically changing their otherwise hard rock tone to a softer power ballad, using a storybook method to make their argument, and using appeals such as ethos, pathos and logos throughout the song to make a long lasting connection to their audience. When “Stairway to Heaven” aired in 1971, avid Led Zeppelin listeners were taken aback by the song’s sound. Led Zeppelin is known for its hard rock tone and musicality. “Stairway to Heaven” and its musicality begins as a very slow, depressing guitar arpeggio and a story begins to take place. Slowly and deliberately, more and more instruments are introduced to the whole of the song as the true purpose of the song comes to light, ending in a more typical, upbeat Led Zeppelin sound. The composers wanted to grab their listeners’ attention by being so drastically different. What they had to say was worth the initial sacrifice of being the opposite of their norm. The lyrics of “Stairway to Heaven” are very poetic and are riddled with metaphors, imagery, and symbolism that can be read as many different things; differentiating the most important portions is difficult simply because to understand their meaning, one must understand the whole song. The piece starts with “There’s a lady who’s sure that all that glitters is gold, and she’s...
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...Larkin’s poetry can be dark, amusing, cynical or deeply reflective, all communicated in a distinctive voice. Explore those features of style that gives Larkin’s poetry its distinctive voice. Larkin’s style is an incongruent blend of formal structure and ordinary colloquial diction which often includes crude language and sardonic humour. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Larkin distinctively communicates his rather fatalistic but at the same time amusing views of life. Larkin’s style is a ‘piquant mixture of lyricism and discontent[Footnote]’. Philip Larkin approaches profound topics such as religion, death and the restrictions of society from a peculiar angle and employs his trademark style of transparent expression, humorous and coarse diction which gives him his distinctive voice. ‘Highly-structured but flexible verse forms[Footnote]’ is the best representation of the Larkin’s use of structure in his poem ‘Church Going’. It is evident that the poem has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDECE and uses iambic pentameter. The rhymes are soft and regular (‘silence/reverence’) except for the addition of a non-rhyming line which breaks the sequence. This creates a sense of ambivalence towards religion: he is both attracted to and uncertain about it. In the second stanza, he bluntly tells us that the church ‘was not worth stopping for’ and that he hears the ‘echoes snigger briefly ’after reading a passage from a Bible. However, later on in a more poetic voice he contemplates...
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...Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova State Pedagogical University “Ion Creangă” Foreign Languages and Literature Faculty English Philology Department DIPLOMA PAPER Figurative Language, Language Shaped by Imagination in Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories Submitted by: the 4th year student Paşcaneanu Mariana Group 404 Scientific adviser: Tataru Nina Senior Lecturer Chişinău 2012 Contents INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER I: SHORT STORY AS A FORM OF FICTION 5 I.1.Common Characteristics of a Short Story as a Form of Fiction. Its Plot and Structure. 5 I.2. Figurative Language. Definition. Function. 9 I.3. Imagery – Language that Appeals to the Senses 11 I.3.1. Simile, Metaphor and Personification. 13 1.3.2. Symbol and Symbolism. 26 I.3.3 Allegory. 30 CHAPTER II: LANGUAGE SHAPED BY IMAGINATION IN K. MANSFIELD’S SHORT STORIES 36 II.1. Figurative Language, Symbolism and Theme in "Her First Ball": 37 II.2. Katherine Mansfield – Techniques and Effects in A Cup of Tea. 41 II.3. Literary Colloquial Style in “Miss Brill” by K. Mansfield. 49 II.3.1. Lexical features—Vague Words and Expressions 49 II.3.2 Syntactical and Morphological Features 52 II.3.3 Phonological Schemes of the Figures of Speech 55 II.4. Simplifying Figurative Language in K.Mansfield’s Short Stories 60 CONCLUSION 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY 66 APPENDIX 70 INTRODUCTION Figurative Language is the use of words that...
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