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English 3319 students:
During our class time, 1:00-1:50 p.m., on Monday, November 8th, please publish a comment of two well-developed paragraphs on the stark differences between the two imaginary journeys taken by Robert Frost in "The Road Not Taken" and Sylvia Plath's "Elm:"
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49003/elm
In your comment, please include how natural images are used and how choices/decision making are depicted.
After you publish your comment, please reply in one paragraph to at least one of the students' comments.
Reminder: For Wednesday's class, please read Flannery O'Connor's classic Postmodern short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find:"
Sincerely,
Dr. Kornasky
Both Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath rely on natural imagery, though the emotions they convey differ vastly. Plath’s “Elm” is markedly moodier than Frost’s nostalgic introspection. Plath speaks of lost love and depression through the lens of an elm, reflecting her own personal turmoil against an indifferent, yet constant nature. Plath is both the elm speaking and the viewer being spoken to. The elm reflects the strong natural body, subjected to consistent natural turmoil and desolate imagery, unable to flee due to deep, anchoring roots. Sunsets are agonizing, scorching the elm’s roots, and the moon is scathing and merciless. There is no period where the elm experiences relief from the cycle of nature and typically beautiful scenes are distorted by agony. Plath’s outlook is quite grim. Love has fled her like a spooked horse. As a result, she’s left hollow and unreceptive to even the most beautiful naturally occurring events. Pain distorts her perception of nature and makes her oddly violent in her dark depression. Everything beautiful and natural is regarded venomously reflecting the toxicity and self-hatred of one experiencing a deep depression.
ReplyDeleteFrost uses natural imagery to depict an inevitability in life: choice. Each of the paths exist as a branching consequence of choosing one over the other. Its not important which is more or less traveled as both are equally worn and obstructed by leaves. Both paths have equal potential, but human notions of individuality compel us to regard our choices as unique and special. What matters is the moment of choosing. The forest Frost describes is yellowed by autumn and each path is obstructed from view. Neither of the paths have been back tracked, so the speaker must come to terms with the fact that his impending choice is final. Nature has already begun to change and soon the speaker must choose a path. Try as he might, each path’s destination is obstructed from view, just each of our decisions have unknowable consequences. Eventually, regardless of whatever path he takes, the speaker will reflect on the past wistfully and think of what might have been. To comfort his own conscience, he will romanticize the path he chose, knowing well that each were worn the same.
I really like your description of Plath as being unable to view the beautiful due to her inner pain. I also think that the different approach to inevitability the authors take is really interesting. Frost is at peace, and takes a romanticist view of his past choices, while Plath is haunted by feeling as though her actions do not matter. Frost is looking at the past with a tone of nostalgia, and possibly regret, but ultimately he feels that life has taken him where he is supposed to go. Conversely, Plath feels powerless against the cruelty of nature, and cannot find meaning in herself, her actions, or the world around her.
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ReplyDelete“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is about our decision between two separate paths, a decision we face time and time again in life. He begins the poem with sorrow because of the inability for us to choose both paths. I interpreted this as the “what ifs” we all go through in our heads when we have to make a choice. He can’t see where the paths lead to because of the undergrowth the paths bend under. He explains how one of the paths is “grassy and wanted wear”, meaning it looked green and as if it had not been traveled. He says,” I kept the first for another day!” It is clear he makes a decision and feels confident about it. He finishes the poem saying he will tell of this decision in the future with a sigh and that he “took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.” I interpreted that he meant by this that when he tells this story he will be content with the path he chose to take and what came of it, even the consequences.
“Elm” written by Sylvia Plath is a poem about an elm tree that I interpret represents her, a woman, who is experiencing the loss of love. She wrote this poem after discovering her husband’s infidelity, so it is easy to assume this poem was her expressing that heartbreak. She opens the poem saying, “I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my top root: It is what you fear. I do not fear it: I have been there.” Plath is talking about the pain of losing love and how she no longer fears it because she has experienced it before. She begins to talk about the sea next in the poem, which I interpreted as her pain. She then talks about a horse galloping through imagery; It is easy to interpret that she is expressing how love always seems to run away and escape her. She then talks about wind and how it is “echoing” which is how she explains how the pain is intense and continuous. “I am terrified of the dark thing that sleeps in me. All day I feel it’s soft feathery turnings, it’s malignity.” Plath says this line and it is interpreted that she is consumed by her self doubt and her bad dreams she talks about earlier in the poem. She finishes the poem by talking about “These are the isolate slow fault. The kill. The kill. The kill.” I believe she is saying that death is the end of our own personal pain and despair and how it takes place within our mind.
I really like your interpretation of the two poems, Brittney! I like how you associated the two roads in Frost’s poem with the “what ifs” that we all constantly face in our lives. Furthermore, I think it is interesting how you interpreted the end of the poem and how the poetic persona is content with the decision. I also enjoyed reading about your interpretation of the elm tree in Plath’s poem that represents a woman who deals with the loss of love and the pain that comes with that.
DeleteOnce again, I cannot seem to publish a comment. I will meet with you at some point this week to try and figure out why this is happening. Sorry for the trouble.
ReplyDeleteIn Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” the natural images evoked in his writing produce feelings of ambition, promise, and comfort. Frost’s description of one of the paths as “grassy and wanted wear” manifests familiar images in the mind of the reader, as most people have seen a path such as this, overgrown and unexplored. Being a younger individual, this poem conjures in me an almost childlike temperament of prospect and meaningfulness, especially in Frost’s warm diction. Moreover, the regular shape and structure of the four stanzas produce an effect of wholeness and plentitude in the reader. The syllables of each line also produce a similar effect, as they regularly contain four stressed syllables and can be considered iambic tetrameter. Likewise, the rhyme scheme of this poem is also regular in each of the five stanzas— ABAAB, further adding to the poem’s aesthetic of harmonious anticipation.
Sharply contrasting Frost’s poem, in Sylvia Plath’s “Elm,” the natural images utilized evoke feelings of contempt, disorientation, and struggle in the mind of the reader. Heavy in symbolism, Plath’s poem seems to be very self-deprecating and existentially contemplative. She ascribes her negative feelings (like loss of love) to natural objects like clouds, the moon, and sunsets, forcing her readers to view traditionally positive aspects of nature as negative and traumatic. Unlike Frost, Plath seems to be haunted by the natural word and resultingly abandons all conventional understandings of nature as welcoming or comfortable for the perception that it is rather a place of emptiness and malevolence. She also seems to blend her perception of nature with her perception of herself, producing the idea that she is just as horrified with nature as she is with her own psyche/past decisions. Moreover, the poem’s image is somewhat regular in its stanzas, however, within the stanzas her enjambed lines are seemingly irregular and not comparable to one another, adding to the poem’s atmosphere of uncertainty. The poem’s free verse style, which I interpret as having a loose ‘stream of consciousness’ effect, also adds similarly to its overall aesthetic of uneasiness.
Wyatt Hase
It is very interesting how different these two poems are. I enjoy how you describe Robert Frost's poem as having a kind of childlike wonder to it, especially with the way he writes. It makes for a very strong contrast to Sylvia Path's haunting work full of symbolism. The way that Frost's more positive, nostalgic outlook and Plath's more negative outlook comes through in their writing styles is truly fascinating.
DeletePlease disregard my first paragraph, I was having trouble publishing a comment.
ReplyDeleteWhile “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “Elm” by Sylvia Plath are both poems concerning decision making, the attitude with which the two poems discuss the subject is drastically different. Frost approaches his past decisions with a sense of nostalgia and wistfulness, yet he is at peace with taking the “road less travelled by” as doing so has “made all the difference,” and likely been the reason why he was a successful poet. In Frost’s poem making a decision was difficult, but there is inspiration and purpose found through navigating this decision. The decision between roads offers Frost a sense of strength, and while it sets him apart from the rest of society, it is through this decision that Frost finds himself. Sylvia Plath’s approach to decision making is entirely different. Where Frost finds himself whole and at peace, Plath finds herself utterly fragmented and distraught when confronted with the need to make a decision. Plath feels herself in utter anguish at the thought of this decision, and she is haunted by a lack of trust in herself. Where Frost feels confident that he has made the right decision, Plath admits to being “terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me,” suggesting a feeling of disassociation from the self, through which she is unable to trust her own decision-making process.
ReplyDeleteTo illustrate the process of making a decision, both poets utilize natural imagery; however, once again, the way in which nature is portrayed is starkly different in the two poets. Plath characterizes nature as hard, brutal, and heartless. The moon is “merciless,” the wind is composed of “violence,” and sunsets are an “atrocity”. This furthers Plath’s sense of alienation and fragmentation which she develops throughout the poem. If even nature has turned heartless, then how can one trust anything, even themself? If nature is not trustworthy and can hide such dark forces, then does it not follow that one also hides some “dark thing”? Plath uses these harsh images in order to illustrate the utter despair, terror, and fragmentation which she experiences. Frost, however, takes a much gentler approach to nature. Nature, for him, contains beauty and an escape. Both of the roads he is presented with are beautiful, but he chooses the one which is overrun by grass, which has a more natural, freer presence. Nature is benevolent, mysterious, and welcoming. Frost’s characterization of nature is more in line with that of the Romantics, in that nature holds the meaning which Frost craves. Plath’s characterization is more in line with that of the Modernist era, in that it is through nature that she feels alienation and fragmentation.
I initially didn't see Plath's use of natural imagery as an expression of alienation. But within the context of her husband's infidelity and the way you framed it in your post, it connects a lot of dots that I missed in my interpretation. The tree, a participant in nature, is scorned and battered by all other forces of nature. Though it is an integral part of the ecosystem, it seems like everything else around it is working against it. What should be supporting her has abandoned her.
DeleteIn the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, the natural imagery of his journey conjures up feelings of nostalgia and whimsy. He is looking back at the two paths that diverge in the woods and thinks about the choices that come with these decisions. He wished he could do somehow follow both, saying that he was sorry that he could not travel both, but life is all about the decisions we make, and in the end, he choices the road less traveled, knowing it makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteThe imagery in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Elm” is much darker in tone. The nature around Plath in this work is far more gloomy and uses it to tell of a different journey. This poem feels more like a journey through that of lost love and suffering, rather than the more kind, airy feeling of Frost’s poem. She uses the imagery of shadows, fires, and poison throughout the poem, and the ending which repeats the phrase “that kills” three times, add to this air of great sorrow and pain.
Hi, EmaLee.
DeleteI agree your point that Frost likened life to the two paths. You watched the differences between two journeys as well. I did not mention that Elm is darker, but I understand your writing. It is really dark and the poet represented the emotions through the images.
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DeleteEmaLee, I really liked your analysis of both poems and completely agree that each poem takes on a different tone. I personally think that was one of the big differences in the poems. In each poem the person goes through a different journey and although they can be seen as metaphorical they both impact the audience as well as the speaker of the poem immensely
DeleteIn the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, the poetic persona describes two roads. The roads are portrayed as pathways in a wood of trees with yellow leaves. The persona cannot take both roads and therefore has to make a decision on which road to take. To make this decision easier, the persona seems to try to look down one of the roads as far as possible to see what the road is going to look like. The persona then decides to take the other road. On the path no steps are visible. “In leaves no step had trodden black.” It appears as if nobody had taken that road before. In this poem different natural images are used. The two roads in the wood portray two possible decisions and the poetic persona can only take one of the two. Another natural image is the unspoiled state of nature portrayed by the untouched leaves. Frost’s poem depicts that the poetic persona has two possible choices and now has to make a decision. Since the persona takes the less traveled path, he or she chooses to take a path not many people take or rather makes a decision that not many people make.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Elm" by Sylvia Plath, the poetic persona describes the bottom and states that he or she does not fear it because “I have been there”. Being at the bottom appears to be something bad in life and the poetic persona has already been there. The poetic persona then describes love and says that “it has gone off, like a horse”. Now he or she is looking “for something to love” and is terrified at the same time. Plath uses various natural images in her poem for example when the love that left her is portrayed by a horse. The most important one is the image of the elm tree because this tree portrays the poetic persona who suffers from the loss of love.
The two poems written by Frost and Plath are both marked by natural images. However, the emotions and the mood in the poems are very different. Frost’s poem seems to be uplifting because it shows how people often have the opportunity to make decisions in life rather than always having decisions made for them. At the same time, it shows how this opportunity of choice can make people ponder. Depending on what decision is made, the future can look very different for the person which makes coming to a decision harder. Plath’s poem deals with the loss of love and is characterized by sentimentalism and grief. The mood is darker in this poem, and it is not uplifting like Frost’s poem is.
While Frost's journey is about choice of life and he regrets the path he chose, Plath's journey has less regret with the loss of love and thinks she made a good choice. Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" sublimates the simple emotions in country into life problems. The topic is about a two-pronged path in the forest, and the theme is a desire for life and a retrospective on life paths. The two paths that appear in the forest unfold with interrelationships with the two life paths. Frost has hesitation to choose one path between two paths in the forest on an autumn day. He chooses the path that few people travel and leaves another path for the future. He recalls his choice of the path which changed everything. The title of the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” indicates that there is a regret over the road that is not taken. The paths in the poetry are the ones in our lives. Since we cannot go two ways at the same time, there must be the agony and human limitations. Sylvia Plath's "Elm" begins with the lady speaker imagining an elm tree and what it represents. The tree seems to say, "I know the bottom ... I know it with my great tap root: It is what you fear." She believes the tree is telling her how foolish she is waiting for her lover. The tree communicates to her that love is vague, that it is gone. As the young woman communicating with the tree, she pictures its sufferings, imagining a "wind of such violence" that it noisily destroys everything in its path. The speaker reflects on her feeling and compares it to a frightening animal sleeping in the tree. The last part of the poem frighteningly describes her emotion, "face so murderous…" Seeing her lover's face in the branches, her mental becomes unstable.
ReplyDeleteThey both use natural images. The Road Not Taken use “a yellow wood” to represent his emotion as “yellow” means energy and joyfulness, while the wood may represent agony and mystery. Elm has a lot of natural images. The major image is the elm tree which describes occurring image throughout the time. The poem also has images of “the sea”, “the moon”, and “the snake.” The sea represents the inner distress and desperation; the moon an imposing authority, an outside force; The image of the snake the malignity of lost love. All these natural images are connected to the elm tree, which expresses a lady’s loss of love.
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ReplyDeleteIn the poem Elm by Sylvia Plath, she discuss her path dealing with love and heartbreak. Of course, there is not a physical path when dealing with this, so she hypothetically is comparing the path to an Elm tree throughout the seasons. She compares the tress experiences and physical attributes to how she is feeling and what she has experienced. For example, when she says, I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root: It is what you fear. I do not fear it: I have been there” implying she know how it feels to have felt like you’ve hit rock-bottom. “Great tap root” probably referring to someone heart or emotions. As she continues down this path, she is faced with many worries and problems, and she must decide on how she must deal with them and continue
ReplyDeleteThe poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is discussing his own life path and how he made the decisions on what paths to choose. He implies he comes across two paths and worries on which one would be the right path and would lead him to where he wanted to go. Of course, this is also a hypothetical path he is following so he must decide on his own which direction of his life he must go. He realizes one of the paths seemed more worn and wondered if that was the correct choice or just an easy way out. He decides to take the path that was less worn implying not many people choose that same direction. At the end of them poem he says, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Which implies he must have some sort of unique experience, but we are not sure if it was necessarily a good or bad experience.
In “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost he depicts the idea that one must choose a path when faced with a fork in the road. Unlike “Elm” by Sylivia Plath, Frost must make a decision on which path to take. He uses nature to help describe the setting. His imagery helps the reader to understand what time of year it is. Through his descriptions of the leaves the reader can guess that it is fall. This poem highlights how important it is to make a choice and how decision making is inevitable in the end. In a way Frost is still haunted by the road that he did not take.
ReplyDeleteWhile Frost’s poem depicts the choice a person must make when they come to a crossroads “Elm” by Sylvia Plath depicts the journey of a woman through the seasons and her emotional transformation after a loss of a love. While Robert Frost’s poem takes on more of a lighthearted and easy tone, “Elm” seems to have a much darker tone. Plath uses natural imagery throughout the poem. The sea represents the woman's internal desperation as well as her distress for this lost love. The elm tree in this poem can be seen as the woman and her struggle to carry on.
Rebeka, I like your input on Frost being haunted by the road he did not take. Most responses, including mine, discuss the path he did choose and the benefits he reaped as a result. However, they are all the while ignoring the fact that there were benefits down each path, and that Frost would be forever haunted by what he lost by spurning each path for the other. This is a very good example of how no matter what somebody may choose to do in life, there are always things that must be lost in order to gain others.
DeleteI think it is interesting to see how there aren't always going to be wins in life and there are always going to be choices made.
DeleteBoth "The Road Not Taken" and "Elm" by Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath respectively are poems that feature the harsh reality of decision making. However, the way these two poems go about discussing this uneasy practice are quite different. Robert Frost’s decision to take a different path than most gives him a sense of vigor and strength, as by following his chosen path he has put himself on a path that is sure to take him to a position few men have been in. In direct opposition to this, Sylvia Plath’s decisions in “Elm” continually cause her distress and to overthink. These opposing feelings show that while making a decision may sometimes result in a great sense of euphoria, it is just as possible that doing so wrecks a person’s mentality.
ReplyDeleteAnother way the two poems are depicted differently is in their imagery. While both Frost and Plath use healthy amounts of natural imagery in their work, the type of imagery could not be far apart. Frost’s imagery inspires visions of warmth and comfort, such as describing paths as “grassy and wanted wear”, possibly representing a journey waiting to be undertaken. In a complete turnaround, Plath is constantly comparing different things in nature to her own struggles, such as comparing the setting sun to her love that she once had and has now lost. This forces the reader into her negative mindset, taking normally happy and comforting things and surrounding them in an aura of negativity.
I agree that Frost and Plath seem to have very different outlooks when it comes to decision making. It is definitely true that people have different reactions to making a decision in real life. Some people react like the traveler in Frost's poem, others like the narrator of Plath's poem. However, even the traveler has some anxiety about his decision, but he learns to overcome it. In Plath's poem, there appears to be no hope for the narrator.
DeleteThis is from Aaron McGuire. I agree with what you are saying here about the imagery and emotions being created and conveyed in both poems. "The Road Not Taken" certainly uses much warmer and more positive imagery in order to create a sense of vigor, which is in stark contrast to Plath's usage of imagery to convey the negativity she was feeling with the loss of her love. Good work!
DeleteRobert Frost’s The Road Not Taken deals with serious subject matter, but it does so in a way that is hopeful and relatively light (at least when compared to Elm by Sylvia Plath.) Frost’s poem tells the story of someone who is a traveller and encounters a fork in the road. This traveller chooses to take what he believes is the road less travelled. However, the traveller says that the roads are equally fair, so it is difficult to choose which road to take. This description of both roads as “fair” shows that the poem has a somewhat light and hopeful tone. No matter which road the traveller takes, he will have a pleasant journey. There is a bit of wistfulness at the end of the poem, as the traveller recounts his choice “with a sigh,” as though he wonders what good things may have been on the other path. However, based on the tone of the poem, the traveller appears satisfied with his choice.
ReplyDeleteSylvia Plath’s poem Elm is much darker and stranger than Frost’s poem. Frost describes a scene that is fairly pleasant and beautiful in The Road Not Taken. However, in Elm, Plath takes things that are often associated with beauty or nature and turns them into disturbing symbols. She describes the sea, love, the moon, the rain, and even sunsets in ways that make them seem unpleasant. Whereas Frost writes about hopefulness and describes two equally good choices, Plath makes it seem as though the entire world is out to cause harm. Frost writes that there are multiple ways to live life and have a good outcome, but Plath creates a dangerous world with pain that is inescapable.
This post is from Aaron McGuire.
ReplyDeleteThere are multiple differences taken in the stylistic and imagistic representation of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and Sylvia Plath's "Elm".
To begin with, Robert Frost utilizes natural imagery as symbolism for the choices made in life. Be it the leaves and morning sunlight on both paths or the unique properties of either found in the form of the undergrowth and how beaten they are, Frost makes sure that both paths have similar characteristics yet still have defining properties and separate directions, creating a vivid allegory for the varying choices that constitute life. The narrator's choice of path is depicted as one taken after much thought, one that while still being the path the narrator takes still provokes a mournful tone in the story through the thought of what the other path might have held for them. This depicts the choices made in the story as voluntary yet life-defining.
On the other hand, Plath uses natural imagery in "Elm" as something that is hostile to the narrating elm tree. Natural elements such as the moon and sunsets are often accompanied by words such as "scathes" and "atrocities," creating a sense of hostility in the natural world, generating an atmosphere of hopelessness that permeates the story and serves its narrative of love being lost. Rather than the voluntary, thoughtful contemplation and decision-making found in Frost's poem, "Elm" shows its decisions to be made as reactionary and, in some cases, entirely involuntary due to the circumstances of the natural world. This once again adds on to the consuming feeling of hopeless in the story.
I agree with you that elm is wild a force of nature. while the road not taken is more sweet and contemplative. I think that the contrast between these to quthors is very significant. Sylvia Plath is none for a more raw, dark style of writing. While frost definitely has more of lyrical sense of writing,
DeleteThe Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, uses really color language to describes the setting of the poem. So this phrase, “In leaves no step had trodden black.” Brings out imagery that you can walk through this alive and lavish path. To me it invokes a sense of beauty. That to walk through this path is hard because the beauty surrounding makes it difficult to chose which one. This is one of my favorite poems.
ReplyDeleteElm by Sylvia Plath, within this poem she uses multiple different objects to state her point. “All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.” I take it to mean something that is usually soft turn violent and harmful. In a way how love can be used to sway someone in the same sense of them being saved from it. “The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me Cruelly, being barren. Or radiance scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.” I really like her use of personification, as if the moon was something that could harm her or be harnessed by her.
I agree with you, I kind of missed how there were "benign" items and images turned "malignant." I enjoy your latter explanation of "Elm," that love is strange, in that it can harm and help someone. There is a helpful love, and a hurtful love. And finally, that nature is seen as dangerous in "Elm," but helpful or nostalgic in "The Road Not Taken."
DeleteIn “The Road Not Taken,” Frost creates a beautiful and welcoming scene, where there are two options to choose from, and neither is any worse or wretched than the other. The world is beautiful, yellow, green, lush—no black anywhere. The speaker’s voice is passive, adding that each road is equal—neither is inherently better at face value. The speaker is so passive, the reader is unaware of their choice in path, or even if they are happy in their choice—if they may be regretful or thankful of their choice. There may be nostalgia, or he may be thinking in hindsight, maybe his life turned out well, or maybe it didn’t.
ReplyDeleteIn “Elm,” Plath takes a darker, unwelcoming tone, and an inverse meaning of sorts, than “The Road Not Taken.” This place that the speaker and reader are now in, is dark, vast, and full of pain and fear. This poem is reflecting, as the other was, but this reflection is purely negative, as the speaker sounds as if they have no choice—have had no choices. Their life is shrouded by some sort of love gone awry, romantic or otherwise. The speaker is not an actor, but an “actee”—they are but a tap rooting vegetable, and are scorched by the actions of whoever they are speaking of.
Dark, vast, and painful, versus bright, simple, and thoughtful.
Hey Jayden! I very much enjoy the little note you added about Plath's poem seeming to convey that the narrator had no choice in the matter. Considering Frost's poem is based almost solely in a decision well in the hand of the narrator, and maintains a much lighter tone, it makes a lot of sense that Plath's persona would feel the opposite. I also like the metaphor about the elm tree being scorched, especially at the root. She's definitely been scarred pretty badly if this is how its effecting her, so the image of a tree surrounded by a dark, unfocused, vast world that seems only to be out to get here communicates very well. Overall, straight to the point, and I like it!
DeleteHello Jayden! I enjoyed that your blog seems very simple but has thorough descriptions of the poems assigned. I am intrigued with the last two sentences of the first paragraph. I did not realize that it may have been spoken in a passive tone and reading it with that mindset I see how it was not such a heavy decision he had to make. Yes he may be looking back at his choice but he lives with his choice and decides that it was the better choice no matter the outcoming and not knowing what was beyond the other path. I also love the last part which clearly shows how substantial the differences were between both poems.
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ReplyDeleteThe starkest difference between Frost and Plath’s styles is illustrated clearly between these two poems, rooted in natural imagery. Beginning with Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, a pair of paths described as mostly untraveled, wonderous, and otherwise intriguing takes center stage to Frost’s persona’s interests. Notably, the poem is penned with narration from the perspective of a person removed from nature, electing to portray themselves as a whole person, but not wholly disconnected from its themes. The poem takes on an almost cheerful, optimistic tone as the human narrator gleefully deliberates on and describes their experience with a situation where they must make a choice between two paths. In the end, the narrator accepts the path they chose but still wonders what was down the other path, or the one more often trodden, saying “I shall be telling this with a sigh… I took the one less traveled by.” Here, Frost’s persona deliberates on a willful choice that made them differ implicitly from the average person, but still struggled to face a particular result as each path seduced them with their own particular allures. The root of the poem’s imagery is found in nature throughout, but ultimately the narrator has a greater effect on their feelings and their surroundings than nature does on them.
ReplyDeleteSylvia Plath’s poem, “Elm”, however, utilizes nature as a grotesque, demonized tool to communicate pain, withering, and a trapped feeling through Plath’s own persona. Most notably, the poem focuses on love and how it effects one’s own happiness, and in order to portray love as fleeting, personifies it as a horse galloping away. Plath’s persona portrays herself as the one galloping away, perhaps acknowledging her pursuit of love as foolish and shortsighted, ultimately resulting in more pain for her, but still, she stands like an elm tree. As the seasons pass, the tree, or the persona, is subject to the elements, including the grief and sorrow of lost love in the form of rain, or the burning sting of the sun’s light, or the atrocious burn of reality, exposing “red filaments… a hand of wires.” She’s been hollowed by this love, left to stand and lament in the unattainable nature of love for her as a tree, and slowly wither from the elements. Here, Plath portrays herself as the natural element, taking on the perspective of a tree to communicate her pain. Where Frost’s poem maintains an optimistic but almost brooding element based on the persona’s decision, Plath’s poem struggles in pain against the sorrows associated with love. One seems to have accepted their decisions and experiences, even if not fully, whereas the other lashes out in a lack of understanding, questioning the meaning and impact of her experiences. Overall, ironically, Plath seems to have chosen the darker path whereas Frost has chosen the lighter, electing to portray, unintentionally, two mindsets of good health and fleeting health.
Beginning with Robert Frosts’ lighthearted poem about wisdom obtained from making a decision is beautifully put in this setting of one choosing a path. Frost describes the two paths made of yellow wood but one with more worn grass and the other with no trace of being walked upon. Frost begins the poem by apologizing by saying “And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could,” which displays that although he was happy and satisfied with his choice of choosing the path that had not been taken before, he wishes he could see what would have happened if he had chosen the other path. When making a decision we never know what could have happened if we happened to choose the other option which leaves us questioning many things, no matter how content we are with the choice we made.
ReplyDeleteIn Sylvia Plaths, “Elm”, we are introduced to a heavy poem dealing with lost love and the powerful emotions represented through nature. Plath uses diction that creates this imagery and vividness of a woman who is questioning the love they have lost. Describing her emotions as the "sea" that seemed to dissatisfy the loved one and may have driven them to madness. Plath compares love to a shadow, uses poisonous rain as a depiction of her emotions, and her need to shriek due to the overpowering emotions in the situation. She speaks of suffering “...the atrocity of sunsets.” and of her burning body that still stands. The diction weighs down the tone by including a wind of violence, mercilessly being dragged, and cruelly hindered from growing descriptions. Plath feels that she cannot obtain any wisdom, knowledge, or find a way to live with a peaceful heart. The poem is full of hopelessness and a feeling of asphyxiation by questioning everything about oneself. Plaths poem greatly contrasts from Frosts because of the feeling of not having another option or decision to make. She has one path and that is to eventually die because of the nature or external forces that surround her.
Renee Balboa
ReplyDeleteIn “The Road Not Taken” has a softer tone to how the poem is to be read. There are a lot of descriptions that allow the reader to put two and two together, which makes the time of year and the setting of the poem known by the reader. The idea of the two paths is interesting because the choice has to be made and it is relatable to the real world, that not every choice is necessarily the right choice. It is also interesting to see that there isn't always one clear choice to make.
The poem “Elm” is a bit more gloomy and the setting is also a bit darker or has more emotion. There is the same idea that the choices have to be made but it’s more of emotional choices. They are all dealing with internal struggles and there have to be choices made in order for the women in the poem to find real solutions.
I agree that the two poems have vastly different approaches that are keys to Robert Frost and Silvia Plath's writing styles. I find it interesting how Frost's poem has more of a calming nostalgic feel to it while Plath's reflects more of her emotions.
DeleteRobert Frost’s The Road Not Taken and Silvia Plath’s Elm are both great depictions of imagery in their own respective ways. Frost’s The Road Not Taken invokes images of fall leaves and looking back on past instances and Plath invokes more aggressive imagery. Frost continues to emphasis his already strong presence of an elderly man who is wise and looking back on his life through his soft imagery and Plath continues to emphasize her youthfulness through her aggressive and almost rebellious narrative. Specifically I think Frost’s poem shows more of a nostalgic form of writing as he thinks back on his former choices and regrets in a short but sweet narrative. While in contrast, Silvia Plath has more a rebellious and distraught take in her poem, Elm. While both poems handle decision making the two poets take vastly different approaches, Frost goes about his narrative through more somber themes while Plath feels more fragmented and isolated.
ReplyDeleteThis comment was made by Madelyn Mendoza.
ReplyDeleteThe stark poetic differences between Frost and Plath are very easy to identify especially in the two poems provided. "The Road Not Taken" is a poem that symbolizes the poetic beauty in nature as well as looking back on our life choices and how they may define us depending on the road in which we choose to travel. Frost has a significant use of imagery which ultimately helped me to related to his poetry on a deeper level due to the level of nostalgia used to convey past relationships and invoke a sense of yearning to know more about the past experiences of others as well as myself as a reader.
When looking directly at "Elm" by Plath, I immediately sense almost a tension of the experiences held by not only the voice of the poem but also for myself as a reader. The tension followed by loss of a love one is something as reader that I can sympathize with the sense of imagery being portrayed by Plath in this poem. She speaks of the darker emotions such as pain and suffering to convey a deeper connection to the poison rain of nature or even the darkness of a shadow. These dark feelings to me connect on a more personal level in comparison to the softer nostalgia of Frost in the sense that we will always have the ability to look back at our own lives, but when we lose a love it feels as though the memories will never make their way back to us.