Discovering the Hidden Elements of Poetry

Cynthia Smith

Buist Academy

Charleston, South Carolina

“Poetry, like all wonderful things,

can be more admired when it is fully recognized.”

Michael Clay Thompson

Introduction

• Read The Road not Taken by Robert Frost

• What main themes do you think the author was trying to communicate?

• Be careful! Robert Frost said this is a tricky poem.

• Look for hidden meanings.

Uncover the Hidden Meanings

The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, 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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

• Small group – list ideas / themes.• Listen to the author reading the

poem.• Discussion – Uncover hidden

meanings• Read scholarly discussions

Warning

“I should like to be so subtle at this game as to seem to the casual person altogether obvious. The casual person would assume I meant nothing or else I came near enough to meaning something he was familiar with to mean it for all practical purposes.”

“I’ll bet not half a dozen people can tell you who was hit and where he was hit in my Road Not Taken.”

DiscussionThe Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, 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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

• What is the obvious meaning to the “casual person”?

• What’s tricky about this poem?

• What are some of the themes?

Individualism

Discussion• What is the obvious meaning to

the “casual person”?• What’s tricky about this poem?• What are some of the themes?• Which phrases refer to which

road?

The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, 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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Discussion• What is the obvious meaning to

the “casual person”?• What’s tricky about this poem?• What are some of the themes?• Which phrases refer to which

road?• Are the two roads the same or

different?

The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, 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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Same Different

DiscussionThe Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, 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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

What is the significance of :“And that has made all the difference.”• If the two roads are equal, how can the

decision make “all the difference”? • What is he looking for as he is trying to

decide which road to take?• What is the significance of “the better

claim”?• Which road does he take? Why?• Which phrases describe the “road less

traveled”?

Discover the Hidden Meanings

IndecisionHe is placing undue importance

on this decision, which causes him to be indecisive.

DiscussionThe Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, 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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

• What is the significance of :• “Sorry I could not travel both”• “I shall be telling this with a sigh” • Why does he call the poem The

Road NOT Taken?

Discover the Hidden Meanings

Regret

DiscussionThe Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, 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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

• Why does he say they are the same at the beginning, and then at the end, say they were different?

Discover the Hidden Meanings

RationalizingWhen he is old, his remembrance will not be in line with reality. He

wanted to take the “road less traveled”,

so even though there was no road lesstraveled (they were the same) he will

lie about it.

From Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. Copyright © 1984 by William

Pritchard http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/road.htm

For the large moral meaning which "The Road Not Taken" seems to endorse - go, as I did, your own way, take the road less traveled by, and it will make "all the difference"- does not maintain itself when the poem is looked at more carefully. Then one notices how insistent is the speaker on admitting, at the time of his choice, that the two roads were in appearance "really about the same," that they "equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black," and that choosing one rather than the other was a matter of impulse.

But in the final stanza, as the tense changes to future, we hear a different story, one that will be told "with a sigh" and "ages and ages hence." At that imagined time and unspecified place, the voice will have nobly simplified and exalted the whole impulsive matter into a deliberate one of taking the "less traveled" road.

Scholarly Discussions

Scholarly DiscussionsA close look at the poem reveals that Frost's walker encounters two nearly identical paths: so he insists, repeatedly. The walker

looks down one, first, then the other, "as just as fair." Indeed, "the passing there / Had worn them really about the same." As if the

reader hasn't gotten the message, Frost says for a third time. "And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden

black." What, then, can we make of the final stanza? My guess is that Frost, the wily ironist, is saying something like this: "When I

am old, like all old men, I shall make a myth of my life. I shall pretend, as we all do, that I took the less traveled road. But I shall be lying." Frost signals the mockingly self-inflated tone of the last stanza by repeating the word "I," which rhymes - several times - with the inflated word "sigh." Frost wants the reader to know that what he will be saying, that he took the road less traveled, is a

fraudulent position, hence the sigh.

Jay PariniFrom "Frost" in Columbia Literary History of the United States. Ed. Emory Elliott.

Copyright © 1988 by the Columbia University Press

Scholarly Discussions

The sigh can be interpreted as a sigh of regret or as a sigh of self-satisfaction; in either case, the irony lies in the distance between what the speaker has just told us about the roads' similarity and what his or her later claims will be.

Frost might also have intended a personal irony: in a 1925 letter to Cristine Yates of Dickson, Tennessee, asking about the sigh, Frost replied: "It was my rather private jest at the expense of those who might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life."

Finger, Larry L. (November 1978). "Frost's "The Road Not Taken": A 1925 Letter Come to Light". American Literature 50 (3): 478–479.

Just kidding

According to Frost, the poem was intended as a joke, a gentle jab at his great friend and fellow poet, Edward Thomas, with whom he used to take walks through the forest. Thomas always complained at the end that they should have taken a different path.

When the poem was published, Frost sent a copy to Thomas. Unfortunately, Edward Thomas did not recognize it as a poem about himself, and Frost had to explain it.

“Poetry is awesome!”

Inquiry: I wonder…

• How can I learn to figure out hidden meanings?

• Why do poets hide meanings?

• How can I write poetry with hidden meanings?

A poet uses hidden meanings to make a poem more complex and

more enjoyable.

Anniversary by Vicky Brago-Mitchell

Why do most people assume that the two roads represent the

choices people make in life?

Poets can use

figurative language and imagery

to convey meaning.

Gossamer by Vicky Brago-Mitchell

Haiku

Wild thistle blossoms

seen even by the eyes of

the garden-less poor.

Haikua type of Japanese poem

A haiku evokes a feeling of tranquility.

It is light and delicate.

It often illustrates some aspect of nature.

Haiku was once part of ancient Japanese courtship rituals.

A man would send a Haiku to the woman he loved. If she liked the poem (and the man), she would

write a tanka in response.

What are the elements of Haiku?• Form: 5 – 7 – 5, no rhyme scheme• Topic: Nature• Feeling: evokes tranquility, compassion• Contrast• Kigo: a word that indicates the season• Engo: associated words rising from the same

concept, similar to our similes and metaphors• Kake kotoba: a pivot word with multiple

meanings or connotations. "The pivot word shades into the pun, and some Japanese poems have so many puns that they may have two or more quite dissimilar meanings.” - Rexroth

Hidden by darkness,even old herons feel safe

from the hungry hawk.

-Matsuo Basho

-(1644-1694)

When a cuckoo singson a hill, tea-pickers stand

stock-still to listen.-Matsuo Basho

-(1644-1694)

Matsuo Basho

• One of the most famous, prolific haiku poets

• Japanese

• When his poems were translated, some of the words had to be changed.

• The English words have the correct number of syllables, but other aspects of the Haiku might be missing.

How does an understanding of the elements of Haiku

help you to appreciate it more?

Hidden meanings can be discovered through an analysis of the poetics of a piece of literature.

• Sounds of Voice– Hard vs. soft– Onomatopoeia

• Patterns of Sound– Meter– Rhyme– Alliteration

Poets can use

sounds of voice to convey meaning.

Gossamer by Vicky Brago-Mitchell

Hidden meanings can be discovered through an analysis of the poetics of a piece of literature.

The point is to use sounds artistically, secretly,to bring the character to life.

An author blends in touches of softness, or hardness, throughout a passage,

in a way that will have an effect on the readerwithout calling attention to the sounds,

without being showy.Michael Clay Thompson

Sounds of VoiceSome sounds are hard.

They convey a harsh negative meaning. They are

scratchy,

spiky, harsh.

• The tangled bine-stems scored the sky like strings of broken lyres.

“The Darkling Thrush”

letters

Sounds of Voice

Some sounds are soft. They convey a positive meaning.

They are

fluty,

soothing,

humming.

“Tis but thy name that is my enemy.Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.What’s Montague? It is not hand nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man.

O be some other name!

letters

murmuring bees

... the moan of doves in immemorial elms,And murmuring of innumerable bees.

Come Down, O Maid

Sir Alfred Tennyson

Poets can use

patterns of sound to convey meaning.

Gossamer by Vicky Brago-Mitchell

Meter

Foot

syllables 1st stressed last stressed

2

3

iambiambic

trochee/trochaic

dactyldactylic

anapestanapestic

Limerick

There was a Young Lady whose eyes,

Were unique as to color and size;

When she opened them wide,

People all turned aside,

And started away in surprise.

Rhyme• Masculine –

– One syllable

• Feminine – – Two-syllable, second syllable unstressed

Rhyme• End Rhyme

– Rhyming words at the end of the lines

Rhyme

• Internal rhyme– Rhyming words in the middle of the lines

I’m sorry for letting the dog eat the broom

I’m sorry for freeing a frog in your room

Rhyme

• Near rhyme– Sounds close

• Sight rhyme– Words look the same, but sound different

Advanced Rhyme

Half Double Elided Amphisbaenic Reverse Apophany

Half-double Rhyme

the last syllable of one word rhymes with the next to the last syllable of the other.

The fearsome beast gazed upon the manWho was standing on the savanna.

Elided Rhyme

two syllable words that would be a perfect rhyme except for the vowel in the second syllable

He could see by her face that she was lividWhen he asked her where she lived.

Amphisbaenic Rhyme

two identical syllables in reverse

All the children ran to get their magic kitshoping to get the one with the special stick.

Reverse Rhyme

the entire first syllable is the same

He was a nativeFrom the Cherokee NationWho understood the importance of nature.

Apophany

beginning and ending consonants are the same, but not the vowel in between

They fed the fat cattleto make them ready for the kettle.