Creating Theme From Poetic Elements English Literature Essay Essays

Creating Theme From Poetic Elements English Literature Essay Essays Creating Theme From Poetic Elements English Literature Essay Essay Creating Theme From Poetic Elements English Literature Essay Essay Good poets utilize a assortment of poetic elements to make a literary chef-doeuvre. Frost s verse form The Road Not Taken is a authoritative illustration of the interaction of assorted elements. This verse form contains a huge array of poetic elements including sarcasm, symbolism, ambiguity, and struggle and retrospective patterning. Frost uses these poetic elements to assist make the subject in The Road Not Taken. Faggen believes, The Road Not Taken is an dry commentary on the liberty of pick ( par. 1 ) . A great sum of sarcasm is embedded in the verse form, but it is hard to place and construe the sarcasm on the first reading. After several reads it becomes evident the huge sum of sarcasm Frost utilizes in the verse form. Katherine Kearns considered the sarcasm found in the concluding stanza of the verse form deadly ( 37 ) . Kearns believes the last stanza is a anticipation of the hereafter and the truth is foreshadowed in the present by the verse form itself: the storyteller knows where he will stop up, and all the difference can hold made no difference ( 37 ) . This leads the reader to believe the traveller s pick will do small difference in the balance of his life. The traveller made a pick, it turned out to be a good pick, and he proceeded to populate his life. The sarcasm is the traveller believed that the pick would do a large difference, and that he spent so much clip doing th e pick trusting it would do a difference, every bit good. The rubric, The Road Not Taken is dry in itself. The Road Less Traveled is a more appropriate rubric. However, Frost ironically chose to utilize the rubric to stress the route the storyteller did non take. In an reference at a college ceremonial, Susan Dentzer explains that she felt Frost utilised verbal sarcasm in his rubric to show his thought that the roads we do nt take to travel down in life have every bit much of a function in determining the class of our lives as the 1s that we do pick ( par.16 ) . Symbolism is portrayed throughout the verse form. One illustration of symbolism is Frost depicting a route in the forests to stand for the picks in life. The storyteller comes to a fork in the route that diverged in a xanthous wood ( Frost, Road 1 ) , and contemplates which route to take. This word picture symbolizes the picks in life people face, and how they make those picks. The storyteller in the verse form chooses the route less traveled and finds it makes a difference in his life one time he arrives at his finish ( Frost, Road 19 ) . However, Frost neer explains the difference it made ; he lets the reader make up ones mind why the route less traveled made a difference ( Frost, Road 19 ) . Another illustration of symbolism in the verse form is found in how the storyteller decides which route to take. His determination is based chiefly on the wear and tear of the route, and this represents how hastily people make of import determinations in life. George Nitchie believ es that although in The Road Not Taken doing a determination seems to be portrayed as capricious and unmotivated the storyteller is cognizant that every pick has unknown effects ( 160 ) . Life is full of picks and there are many picks people must do and one time made, there is no undoing those determinations. There is no remaking the past experiences except in memories, whether they are full of joy or sorrow, at the picks made and the route that was chosen to go in life. Robert Faggen sums it up good when he states The Road Not Taken reminds us of the effects of the rule of choice in all facets of life ( par.1 ) . Ambiguity is found in many different countries in the verse form. One illustration of ambiguity is when the storyteller foremost says the route he takes is grassy and wanted wear ( Frost, Road 8 ) . However, he goes on to state in the following line that the roads were truly worn about the same. There is no account about the ambiguity in these statements, even though the storyteller says it made a difference in the terminal. The reader does non cognize if the route chosen was the route less traveled or non. Another illustration of ambiguity is found when the storyteller says, Oh I kept the first for another twenty-four hours ( Frost, Road 13 ) . Then the storyteller says subsequently on in the verse form that he will likely neer come this manner once more. Additionally, the storyteller says he spends a long clip looking at both roads, and wished he could take both roads, but will salvage one route for a ulterior trip. Reading these statements in context, they make small sense. However, recognizing the statements are equivocal helps the reader understand that Frost may so be seeking to exemplify that the storyteller has no thought where he is traveling or how his life will stop up. The storyteller can non do sense of his life, and so, Frost utilizes ambiguities in the verse form that do non do sense, every bit good. The ambiguities in this verse form aid to do this verse form intriguing and do the reader to oppugn the poet s significance. Although the verse form appears short and straightforward, the ambiguities embedded in the verse form allow Frost to raise inquiries in the reader s head, doing the verse form more complicated than it appears. Frost s ability to use ambiguity helps to add machination and enigma to his work. Frost one time said a verse form is at its best when it is a teasing vagueness ( Letters 588 ) . Conflict is another poetic component found in The Road Not Taken . The chief struggle revolves around the storyteller s inability to take which route to take. The storyteller can take the common, easy route that will guarantee success but wo nt needfully convey fulfilment ; or take the less traveled route that will be more ambitious journey with unknown effects ( Frost, Road 19 ) . Most readers of the verse form can rapidly associate to the storyteller s struggle because this struggle is common in mundane life. Frost besides adds an implicit in struggle in the verse form. There is besides another underlying struggle found in the verse form every bit good. The storyteller notes he likely will neer go through this manner once more. Is at that place conflict in his life that will maintain him from going this manner once more? Is he old, and on one of the last journeys of his life? The complexness of this verse form sneaks up on the reader, and the more they understand the complexnesss, the more confusing the verse form becomes. A poetic component found in the closing of The Road Not Taken is retrospective patterning. Retrospective patterning is when the writer places a word or a phrase at the terminal of the verse form that leads the reader to reconsider their original reading of the verse form ( Feeler, par 1 ) . Frost used this technique when he placed the word sigh in the first sentence of the last stanza ( Road 16 ) . The usage of that one word caused me to oppugn my initial reading of the subject and prompted me to reread the verse form a figure of times before hold oning a steadfast apprehension of the subject. Some critics find Frost s work simple and easy to understand. However, others dig deeper into the words and make deeper significances. Peter Davison one time stated, To this twenty-four hours, in schoolrooms and libraries, pupils and instructors likewise struggle with that sweetly perplexing poesy: the puzzling significance concealed within simple linguistic communication, the self-contradictory and surprising significance couched in traditional signifier ( 113 ) . Therefore, the elements of this verse form are more than what they seem, and so is the ultimate subject of the work. Frost buries many elements in merely a few short lines, and while they may look simple at first glimpse, underneath they are much more complex and interesting. It is interesting to observe that Frost made a notation about the verse form in his diary, observing he really wrote it with a friend in head. A Frost biographer noted This is more about a friend of mine, [ Edward Thomas, as Frost noted on other occasions ] ( Romine 37 ) . Therefore, Frost had a existent individual and a existent state of affairs in head when he composed the verse form, which is yet another of import component. Frost frequently wrote poesy with existent state of affairss and friends in head, and this helps give a existent, natural quality to his authorship, and makes it look more concrete to the reader. Lee Jacobus wrote in his commentary that Frost s work is characterized by concrete experiences ( 573 ) . The Road Not Taken is an digesting verse form incorporating a assortment of poetic elements. The interaction of these elements helps to do this verse form a true chef-doeuvre. Jacobus believes, The accomplishment of a poem consequences from the elusive cooperation of all of its elements ( 445 ) . To efficaciously construe the true significance or subject of a verse form every component must be examined. After analysing the poetic elements found in The Road Not Taken , I have established the following reading of the subject. Life is a journey full of picks that will find an unobserved hereafter. The picks though frequently virtually indistinguishable lead to different fates. Happiness or repent will be determined by each person s personal contemplation on the picks made and the route chosen during their journey.