Course of Life

Poetry belongs to the most exalted types of art. A poem always reflects the state of the soul of its author and opens to the reader all his or her internal worries that cannot be expressed even to the closest people. The poem may give a significant message without describing any events, facts or data by means of symbols only. As the state of mind and the way of thinking change during the person’s life, so the poems of a single author differ from one another. Moreover, the author often presents diverse thoughts speaking about the same recurring thing. This paper which was created by one of the scholarship essay writers seeks to show the reflection of the changes in author’s view of a human’s life based on the poems The Road Not Taken and On a Tree Fallen Across the Road by Robert Frost comparing and contrasting them.

As one can see from the poems’ titles, both verses are devoted to the road or the question hidden under this metaphor. The author tells the reader about making the choice between two roads diverged on his way in the poem The Road Not Taken. He wishes to travel both, but has to choose only one of them. Narrator preferred the untrodden road having examined two directions as well as he could “to where it bent in the undergrowth”. This symbolic crossroads brings the reader to the thought that by the means of the road’s metaphor the author wants to reflect the moment of choosing the destiny. The course of life is the prior road for every person, and that is why making this crucial decision is connected with a lot of worries and hesitations. All of the poem’s elements underline such feelings of the author. Thus, the autumn is the season of the happening and its depth, sensuality and melancholy prevail in the poem from the first lines. Moreover, the autumn may symbolize solitude. One can be convinced of this thought taking into account the first-person narrative and preferring the road “less traveled by” will be taken into account. The other symbols such as the yellow color of the wood, fallen leaves and grassy way with “no step had trodden black” are almost invisible, but every one of them complements the philosophic mood of the poem.

The symbol of the road recurres in the poem On a Tree Fallen Across the Road. Despite the common notion about the similar meanings of both poems, they are presented from different perspectives and put the reader in almost contrary moods. Thus, in contrast to the first poem, there is only one way to the certain destination in this verse. Unlike the art signs in the poem The road not taken the elements of nature used in the poem On a Tree Fallen Across the Road don’t complement the poem’s general mood, but are opposed to it. Thus, optimism and sense of purpose are faced with the obstacles, such as a tempest, snow and a fallen tree that “likes to halt us in our runner tracks”. Therefore, such opposition only emphasizes clear understanding of the chosen destination by the travelers and their firm intention to reach it despite the obstructions. Moreover, besides the basic imagery of the road, a symbol of the tree appears in the poem On a Tree Fallen Across the Road, as the metaphor of difficulties of the human life. This obstacle emerges on the road in order to give the travelers a chance to think whether the direction they choose is the right one:

But just to ask us who we think we are

Insisting always on our own way so.

An opportunity to ponder during life’s journey means the possibility to rethink the choice and change the direction. Raising a similar question in the poem The Road Not Taken the author expresses the opposite view when he says:

Yet Knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back

In contradistinction to the solitude expressed in the poem The Road Not Taken the author uses the pronouns such as “we” and “us” in the poem On a Tree Fallen Across the Road. Such manner allows the reader to see existence of a group of like-minded people with the author among them. Moreover, he feels like a significant member of this traveling company and shares their intentions. These author’s feelings absolutely differ from his way of thinking in the poem The Road Not Taken. Despite the accident in the poem On a Tree Fallen Across the Road travelers have no doubt in their successful achievement of the final (right) goal, when in the other verse the author doubts his choice that has “perhaps the better claim”.

Both of the poems are harmonious with good rhyme schemes that make them euphonious. The poem The Road Not Taken is written in the form of four stanzas every of which consists of five lines. The first line in each strophe rhymes with the third and the fourth one, while the second line is consonant to the last phrase in the stanza. Such approach makes the poem more complicated and philosophic. The style provokes the readers to the deep penetration and pushes them into meditation in order to seize the author’s thoughts and mood. In contrast to the first poem, the form of On a Tree Fallen Across the Road is a little bit easier. It is presented in three stanzas of four lines and one strophe of two lines all of those are rhymed to the nearest. It gives the poem vivacity, ease of perception and creates the mood of optimism and confidence.

At first sight, both poems by Robert Frost are similar in their form and context, but deep reading of the verses with analyzing all the details shows the reader a significant difference between them. Two poems reflect the author’s perception of his and peoples’ destinies at diverse stages of life. As the person may not be the same every day, so the poems became a bright reflection of the daily changes in the author’s mind.