Poetry

A close look at two poets

Almost all of it had some sort of symbolism to show that the author is trying to convey

a message. Robert Frost is probably the one who is best known for his use of

symbolism and imagery. All of the stories that we read in class seem to have a

hidden meaning or a deeper meaning than what was actually written. Robert Frost makes

the usage of symbolism gave his poems a sense of greater meaning and really took his

writing to the next level. He was able to incorporate his ideas without messing up the

story and really keeping it interesting. Emerson, on the other hand, chose to write his

poetry in a more straight forward approach and had very little symbolism.

Although both Frost and Emerson are great authors, their writing styles differed in the

sense that Emerson was able to get his point across, but Frost always used symbolism in

his writings. They did, however, write with a strong usage of imagery.

The definition of symbolism is a person, place, object, image, word or event that

evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literary

significance. Robert Frost tended to use nature as his symbols. He loved nature and was

always able to paint such a good picture that it was hard to distinguish the real

meaning of his poetry. In “Mending Wall” (pg 1031) a wall that keeps getting broken,

down and the neighbors keep repairing it. What Frost is really saying is that the

fence represents relationships, and to have a good relationship, a person must work at

it, and you either build walls or you break them down so you can get to know people.

In “The Road Not Taken” (pg.1028) Frost writes about two different

roads in the middle of the woods, and the person telling the story has to choose one over

the other. What he was trying to relate about the two roads was the decisions we have in

life, the best for us and the one which is not the correct one. Everybody has choices to

make and most take the one that everybody else takes, but he did not take the road less

traveled. In this poem, he relates life to a journey and he basically relates to everyone

because everyone has to make choices in their lifetime. Some of the choices are different

because if you do one thing and not the other, in a sense you could be altering your life

and we have to make choices because we can’t have everything. “The Road Not Taken” is

probably Frost’s best poem with the use of symbolism as it can be seen in the context that

the road not taken can be related to life.

Ralph