Poetry and Figurative Language Paper

Poetry and Figurative language Paper

Tamara Hurley

ENG/340

August 3rd, 2015

Jayne Marek

Poetry and Figurative language Paper

Poetry is something that has lasted the test of time. We use poems as teaching tools that are more than a hundred years old. These are words that have stood the test of time and been read by hundreds of thousands of people. These poems have given their readers a wide range of feelings and images to see.

The Road Not Taken

By: Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere 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 is a well-known writer, so widely known that even if most people do not know his work most people will of heard of him. It is common for him to use many different types of imagery to convey his thoughts and feelings to the reader. While reading this poem, there were multiple thoughts and feelings that come to mind. The most common message people take from this poem is about how your choices effect your life. How two major choices can have an impact on where you go next in life.

The poem itself is a good source of imagery, metaphors, rhyme, and structure. Imagery starts with the first few words of the poem, here we see a yellow wood where two roads meet. From here the poem moves into an image of a grassy road that just begged to be taken. The author has now given the reader two major images in the first two stanzas of the poem. This shows the reader where the author was going in the poem.

The metaphor in this poem is how the roads described equal two major choices in life that the author needs to make. The poem shows how confusing and difficult it can be to when forced to make choices of this type and depth. The poem shows that he took his time, thought about what was important to him. He took the time to move into both roads, to look to see which would be a better choice for him. In the end he chose the road that had been less traveled, something that for him made a difference.