Robert Frost Comparison of His Two Most Famous Works
Robert Frost is America's most beloved poets. Throughout most of his work, we can see his ongoing battle between good and evil. In his works, we see many people who are forced to face challenges that are essential in the course of ones life. Frost exhibits these themes in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and in "The Road Not Taken" by capturing the essence of an individual that has encountered and persevered through difficult times in life only if they succeed by the standards they create themselves. In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," we have a man who stops in the woods to watch the snow fall. The speaker finds these woods to escape from the everyday stresses of life. My own interpretation is that the man finds himself at a critical crossroad in his life and he flees to these woods to reflect on his life. The woods that Frost illustrates are a representation of heaven. Although the man is turning to God for guidance, he is neither in nor near a church. Even still, he believes his location is irrelevant to God, who ultimately listens no matter what. In the second stanza, the horse is only a figment of his imagination. This "horse" is, in actuality, the speaker's own consciousness, a moment
In the third stanza, while the speaker is giving "His harness bells a shake," he is really contemplating and asking himself if he should go through with the suicide. Much like a "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "The Road Not Taken," involves a man who comes to a crossroad in life. "The Road Not Taken" is about a man who has come to a fork in the road and has to decide which path in life he will choose knowing that this decision will be a final one. In the second and third stanzas, the speaker comes to terms that one road is "as just as fair" as the other. Each road was "worn . . . really about the same" and later stating that they were "equally lay." On one hand, he is faced with the more popular of the two, the road of the conformist, and more importantly the road more traveled by. On the other hand, he could choose the path that was "grassy and wanted wear," the road that is certainly "less traveled by." The speaker is frightened of what lurks beyond each turn in the road, in fear of the unknown events that lie ahead. When he talks of "how way leads to way/I doubted if I should ever come back," he really knows that this decision will be the final one and this will change the course of his life. The two speaker's in each of Frost's poems are apparently in similar situations. Each has a certain decision that must be made. If their decisions were not thought through, the consequences could have proven to be detrimental. These poems show us that one should follow his own
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1016
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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