Frost and Emily Dickinson Poem Comparison in Literature - Essay Example

 Frost and Emily Dickinson were very different yet similar, this paper will juxtapose their works or literature. Every work of literature must be carefully analyzed and in order to do so it should be read over and over again. This becomes all the more important especially in the case of poems. The rhyme scheme, what type of a poem is it? Is it a Ballad? Is it a Sonnet? How the poem has been written? Is it written in iambic pentameters or does it include the use of blank verse? These are the most important aspects that must be analyzed. The theme and the message conveyed by the poet are also of significance. Robert Frost needs absolutely no introduction; he was a great American poet who wrote very popular poems. His poems on rustic life of people have gained popularity and several of his poems have an allegoric meaning. His use of language in his poems was immaculate; this paper will shed some light upon his very popular poem called The Road not Taken. The main focus of this paper will be upon important factors such as symbols, rhyme scheme, figures of speech so on and so forth. The Road not Taken is very similar to Aria: A Memoir of a bilingual childhood, it is similar because both the poem and the Memoir present aspects of life which have not been discovered by many, this paper will shed more light upon the similarities between the two. Thesis Statement: The poem has hidden meaning in it; the literal meaning of the poem is very easy to understand. A traveler reaches a fork in the road and is discombobulated because the road shows the traveler two choices, the traveler after much thinking, chooses the road less travelled by people. The figurative meaning of the poem reflects upon the choices that we make in our lives. We can either choose a road which is very frequently chosen by other people or we can choose to walk on a road which is hardly chosen by other people. After making our choice, we would always have regrets because the road not taken would always force us to think about the endless possibilities. This is what the poem is all about and this poem is really popular, Robert Frost became a household name because of this poem. Aria is also very similar because it presents aspects that only very few have experienced in their lives; this is exactly how they are similar. The Road not Taken suggests that the poet took the less travelled road and in Aria also the readers get to see something very similar. Rodriguez who is the main character in Aria feels very comfortable and safe growing up in his neighborhood, the Spanish neighborhood of his is really noisy and disturbing but he finds solace, similarly in Road not Taken the poet suggests that not many take the road not taken because they are comfortable doing what others do, this is again a very big similarity between the two. “When I went up to look at my grandmother, I saw her through the haze of a veil draped over the open lid of the casket. Her face looked calm-but distant and unyielding to love. It was not the face I remembered seeing most often. It was the face she made in public when the clerk at Safeway asked her some question and I would need to respond. It was her public face that the mortician had designed with his dubious art.” (Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood) This is very similar to the sentiments of the poet in Robert Frost, “I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.” (The Road not Taken) the sentiments of the poet and the author are well presented in the Memoir and the poem. Literary Devices: Antithesis is quite conspicuous in the poem, the traveler has to make his choice and he soon realizes that he can only choose one path, the traveler wishes he could travel both but soon realizes that this is not plausible. Another literary device in the poem is personification, the road has been personified. “All sensible people know that roads don't think, and therefore don't want. They can't. But the description of the road wanting wear is an example of personification in this poem. A road actually wanting some as a person would. However: some believe this to be incorrect and believe "wanting wear" is not a personification, but rather older English meaning "lacking". So it would be "Because it was grassy and lacked wear;" (The Road not Taken) The tone of the poem is gloomy, words like “sorry” and “sigh” have been used and these words reflect gloom. Verbal irony is also another figure of speech in this poem, the speaker knows that when he looks back and recollects, he will have to tell his story with a “sigh” and he would also have to throw light upon the differences the second road would have made had he chosen it. Conclusion: The road not taken is a poem with a hidden meaning, it tells us how our life presents two choices in front of us, when we make our choice, after a few years we more often than not ponder over the options we would have had, had we chosen to trot on the road not taken. The poem is very tricky and requires immense concentration to be understood. Aria is very similar to Road not taken because people refrain from stepping out of their comfort zone, not many choose the road not taken and almost everyone likes to be in the shoes of Rodriguez in Aria, settled and growing up peacefully in a noisy neighborhood. I died for beauty was written by Emily Dickenson; she was an American poet who was born in the year 1830. She preferred a very reclusive life, she was also an introvert. She wrote nearly eighteen hundred poems in her lifespan but to her dismay only a few of these poems were published and read by the readers. I died for beauty was very well appreciated by the readers; it expansively presents the relationship between beauty and truth. The poet is convinced that there aren’t too many differences between beauty and truth. The poet dies for beauty in the poem and to her surprise she finds another man next to her tomb who died for truth. This poem employs a rhyme scheme of ABCD; it is a typical poem by Emily Dickenson. The rhythmic use of the dash has been used and this has been used to interrupt the flow of the poem. If we look closely, this poem has iambic tetrameter in it. The first and the third line of the poem are regular. The presence of iambic trimester can also be explored by focusing on the second and the fourth lines. This poem is quite similar to a very famous poem written by Keats called “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Both the poems stress upon the relationship between truth and beauty. “Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty”. The manner in which Dickenson presents the poem is completely her own. “Until the Moss had reached our lips”, this line is very thought provoking and signifies physicality of death. “It would be nice to have a like-minded friend”, this line is also very conspicuous and draws the immediate attention of the readers. It means the poet is very optimistic about the afterlife. The poem is based on the theme of companionship; this should also bring our attention towards the fact that Emily Dickenson lived a major part of her life in seclusion. This yearning for companionship comes from seclusion and she was also an introvert. These factors clearly show that she did not make many friends in her lifetime and this is exactly why she has incorporated the theme of companionship in her poem. The lines “Covering her Lips” and “Covering her name” goes to show moss creeping up her corpse and it signifies the inability of the poet to speak. The poet conveys a very good message that death wipes out almost everything that a human being learns. Learning here signifies ideals, feelings and other important aspects. Emily Dickenson experienced witnessing several deaths of close ones in her lifetime, thus most of her poems reflect this grueling experience. “I dwell in Possibility” is another very nice poem written by Emily Dickenson. Poetry and prose are juxtaposed in this poem. The title in itself suggests that the poet believes that poetry is limitless and better than prose. She believes that pose is restricted; on the contrary poetry is free and limitless. She also believes that poetry is more beautiful than prose. “A fairer house than prose”. “Poetry is also tied to nature, its rooms “as the Cedars,” and its roof made up by the sky (“And for an Everlasting Roof / The Gambrels of the Sky –“). Those who visit, too—poetry’s readers—are also “the fairest,” which can be taken to be the more beautiful, but also, the more careful in their judgments. The final two lines show how poetry enables Dickinson to grasp so much more than she otherwise could (“The spreading wide my narrow Hands / To gather Paradise –“). (Analysis of I dwell in Possibility) This poem also talks about the power that a poet gains by writing poetry. The poet again reiterates that poetry is beautiful and expressive but prose is like a closed door, it has much less freedom then poetry. This message is conveyed by the use of several metaphors and similes by the poet. As the poem progresses the importance switches back to poetry, poet stops comparing poetry and prose in the next few lines of the poem. There are several metaphors used, “Though we see poetry as a house, it is also a garden” Direct comparison takes place here and this is why it is a metaphor. “It defies binary oppositions—and part of nature, with nature, in the guise of the sky-roof, completing it. This sky-roof also again emphasizes poetry’s limitlessness, as there is no upper boundary except the seemingly endless sky.” (Analysis of I dwell in Possibility) The structure of the poem is very freely constructed; the dashes used in the poem signify empty spaces between lines. The rhyme scheme has been very loosely followed by the poet in this poem. The poet is convinced that without the magic of poetry the world would have very little power. This poem is connected to the other poem written by Emily Dickenson because the rhyme scheme is very similar and free verse has been used by the poet in the construction of both the poems. Works Cited Analysis of I dwell in Possibility (2013). Grade Saver The Road not Taken (2013). Poetry Pages. Web. Retrieved from: Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood (2013). City Writers. Web. Retrieved from: Read More