IT Home Learning Week: Poem Blog Post (Assignment 1)

(This post is for the assignment we need to do for Mdm Lim on Day 1 of the E-Learning.)

(Poem/Lyrics:

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference. )

1) Qns: How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?

Ans: There was personification in the poem. Quote: "Because it was grassy and wanted wear;" The personification is obvious as the grass could not have wanted wear. This probably means the grass on the road has not been trodden on for a long time. The poet chose this method because he wanted the reader to feel as though the roads were alive.

Also, there is symbolism in the entire poem. The entire poem seems to be about a man walking along a path until he reaches a crossroads. However, it probably means that the man had reached a virtual crossroads where he needs to make an important choice. He chose this method because he does not want to state explicitly the way he made his decision.

Quote: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveller, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could” This shows that he had taken a long time to make the decision.

Quote: “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.” This probably means that both paths seem to be as good as the other and that they were the same.

Quote: “Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” This means that once he had chosen a path, there was no turning back.

Quote: “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 travelled by, And that has made all the difference.” This probably means that the choice was important and that he had chosen the lesser taken path and that it had made a huge difference in his live. He seems to have regretted his choice as shown by first sentence in quote.

2) Qns: Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.

Ans: I like this poem because it is very meaningful. Moreover, the poem’s meaning is not too deep and the poet had written the poem in such way that it is easy to infer its meaning. The poet had written the poem in a story form, where we can visualize it and actually “see” what the author was doing. There was also some figurative language used, but not too much. I like poems like this because I can understand the poem without thinking for a long time, which I would need to do if the poet had filled the poem with figurative language in every sentence. The poem is also something we can relate to, as we face decisions in our lives, like this one in the poem, all the time. Even if we have not, there will be a time in our life during which we have to.