Comments on The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"  is one of my favorite poems.  "The Road Not Taken" is a poem that everyone can relate to everyday life then and now.  As we go through our everyday life we are faced with many decisions some simple and easy to make and other's not so much. As an opening Frost says, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/And sorry I could not travel both/." ) I believe that sometimes the simplest decision can become the hardest one to make. We must think about the after and the consequence of the decision we are to make whether it be a positive or a negative one. Other times we must listen to our inner voice even though others are trying to influence us as we wonder and think.  "Oh, I kept the first for another day/ Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back" (Line13-15)  Here I believe that Frost was trying to say that with many decisions we make through life there are doubts and we stop and think what would have happened if but in the end we do what is best and right for us no regrets and no looking back. In closing Frost uses my favorite line of all.  He says, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I/took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference." (Line 18-20)  With this I believe he was saying that in life we all make decisions that others may not agree with and we take a different road than the others but that decision could be the reason we reach greatness.

The Second Coming

William B Yeats "The Second Coming" ties in one of the world's oldest and longest topic wihtin the world of Christ and religion.  Everyone has heard of the story when the world will change completely and Christ wil return to finally bring peace to his world and those who trust and believe in him. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold"  As the return of Christ aproaches it is said that the enitre world will be in destruciton and that is exactly what Yeats is describing in this poem.  He describes a nation that is at a loss full of negativity and signs that foreshadows a change that will leave everyone with a differnet view of the world and their beliefs
"Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the second Coming is at hand."  Yeats also paints a picture of a creature, " A shape with lion body and the head of man." The picture he's painting is that of the final battle between God and Satan that has been told from religious leader to religous leader.  This final battle will not only mark the final change of the people but also the victory of either good or evil but the question of how, when, and whom shall this leader be.  That ansewer comes in the last four lines
 That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
nd what rough beast. its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born

"The Second Coming" is here.

"The Voice"

I absolutely love "The Voice"  Hardy just has a way of making the reader feel the sadness and pain that the man feels as his story unfolds through out the poem.  the first line "Women much missed, how you call to me, call to me." I feel is so relatable to anyone who has lost somone so special.  When someone first experiences the loss of somone they can find themselves listening for and hearing the sweet voice they once heard everday of their lives.  The first line in the second stanza is also one that stands out as the man begs the voice to not only speak but to appear as the woman he so longs to see.  The woman he once knew to wait upon his return to town but as it is said within the third stanza reality sets in and the man begins to question whether it truly is the voice of the beloved women "Or is it only the breeze."  As one listens for that special voice reality eventually begins to set in and one must realize that it is the longing to hear the voice that they hear and that they will not appear. The last and final line of the poem ends saying "And the woman calling."  I believe this to be the line of hope for the man and for the reader.  Though one must come to accept the loss of a loved one they can always carry the voice with them in their heart.