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In The Park Poem Analysis

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Both poems “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “In the Park” by Gwen Harwood, articulate the feelings associated with either losing an opportunity or one-self. Frost exposes his narrator’s melancholy resignation at the loss of an opportunity while Harwood, on the other hand, reveals the turmoil of a mother as she succumbs to the demands of motherhood. While both poems focus upon the idea of loss they differ in form, circumstance and consequence.

The idea of loss is initiated in the opening stanza of “The Road Not Taken” when the narrator expresses sadness at the inability to decide which of the “two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” he should take. Comprehending that he “could not travel both” and metaphorically be “one traveller”, he …show more content…
He would like to believe that the choice he made that day “made all the difference”, but in reality, it did not. Frost’s narrator is satisfied with his choice, neither gaining or losing… Neither gaining or losing anything he is satisfied with his choice. Harwood, in contrast, conveys the mother’s loss through juxtaposing imagery. As she nurses her youngest child and says to the wind that her children have metaphorically “eaten (her) alive”, Harwood’s narrator reinforces the sacrifice and consequences of selflessness.

Both “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “In the Park” by Gwen Harwood, explore the idea of “loss” from different perspectives. Where Frost focuses on the loss of opportunities, Harwood displays the loss of self-worth and identity associated with parenthood. Ironically, both feel resignation to the choices made and the roles expected.

Poets Christina Rossetti and W.H Auden, in their poems, “Remember” and “Stop All the Clocks”, explore the idea of death diversely. Where Rossetti portrays death as a physical finality but not one to be tormented by, W.H Auden’s sonnet sees it as excruciatingly

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