“The Road Not Taken” – A Poem of Independence

The 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.

 

-Robert Frost

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            I thought this poem was fitting for my last blog (assigned, anyway). I definitely saw a theme in the poems that I chose, which was self-discovery, realizing and living for your dreams, and following your own path. Clearly, these are the themes of my own life right now, and they are what I am trying to understand.

            I always thought this poem meant exactly what it seems to on the surface-which is to follow your own path- but then I read some analysis on it and found that it was pretty complicated (http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/robert_frost_s_tricky_poem). The analyzer says that if you look at the poem very closely, it talks about how “the other path” was very similar to the first path. Frost writes, “Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same”, implying that the chosen path was not necessarily better. The end of the poem describes the narrator telling his tale with a “sigh”, which most people see as a sigh of content, not regret. However, the analysis says that we do not really know what kind of sigh it is, and if the “difference” that is spoken of is a good or bad one. This analysis made me kind of sad because this poem has always been used to describe individuality and the fulfillment that following your own path brings, but then the analysis says that maybe that is not what the poem means at all, but maybe it is a poem of regret. However, since we do not know exactly what Frost meant when writing this poem (maybe he wrote it this way so it could be related to either situation), we are able to interpret it in the way we wish. I choose to interpret this poem in the way I always have: as one of inspiration.

          The last part of the poem is my favorite: “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”. This part is so powerful because it gives me hope that if I travel my own path-the one less traveled by- then my life will be better for it. I think it is really important to find what will make you happy in life, and then doing it. I am definitely on my own journey to find out what this will mean in my own life, and I hope that when I am older, I can look back on the path that I chose with pride and happiness, not regret.

“Discordants” – A Poem of Remembrance

Discordants I. (Bread and Music)

Music I heard with you was more than music,

And bread I broke with you was more than bread;

Now that I am without you, all is desolate;

All that was once so beautiful is dead.

 

Your hands once touched this table and this silver,

And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.

These things do not remember you, belovèd,–

And yet your touch upon them will not pass.

 

For it was in my heart you moved among them,

And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;

And in my heart they will remember always,–

They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.

 -Conrad Aiken

 

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            This is the first part of Conrad Aiken’s poem Discordants. The first stanza really drew me in: “Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread”. This sentence really portrays the closeness of a relationship between two people. The narrator is saying that because of the person that he was with, everything was different-better. The last two sentences in the stanza are quite heartbreaking: “Now that I am without you, all is desolate; all that was once so beautiful is dead”. The loss that the narrator feels is extremely evident. The narrator goes on to talk about the items that his loved one was around, and how he will remember that she touched and used them, as if she left their presence with them.

This poem really reminds me that it is not what I have but who I have that really matters in life. Belongings will always be around, but loved ones will not. Thankfully I have not had to live through such a tragedy as losing someone with whom I had such an intimate relationship. I hope that I will always think of the sadness of this poem if I begin to lose sight of my priorities, and I hope that I will always cherish the people that I love above anything else. 

“it may not always be so; and i say” – a thoughtful poem

it may not always be so; and i say

it may not always be so;and i say

that if your lips,which i have loved,should touch

another’s,and your dear strong fingers clutch

his heart,as mine in time not far away;

if on another’s face your sweet hair lay

in such a silence as i know,or such

great writhing words as,uttering overmuch,

stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

 

if this should be,i say if this should be-

you of my heart,send me a little word;

that i may go unto him,and take his hands,

saying,Accept all happiness from me.

Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird

sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

-E.E. Cummings

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          In this poem, E.E. Cummings writes about losing his lover to another man. He is thinking of what this would be like, and through his words you can sense the sadness that he feels at just the thought of losing his love. He writes that if she would belong to another, and captivate his heart like she did his own, he would go to the other man and have him “accept all happiness” from him, as if he is giving his blessing. This reminds me of the saying, “if you love someone let them go”. This means that if you really love somebody, then you will want him or her to be happy, whether it includes you or not. However, this is easier said than done. The end of the poem paints a picture of the loneliness and despair that Cummings imagines he would feel if he had to let his love go.

           I think that anyone can relate to this poem. People who have had their heart broken can appreciate the feelings of loss and sadness that this poem evokes, and those who love someone can imagine how terribly hard it would be to let them go. I think that letting the person you love go in search of happiness–leaving you behind–would be the hardest thing in the world to do, and I know that I could not do it in with the dignity and class that Cummings describes in his poem.  

 

“The Dream Keeper” – A Poem Like A Lullaby

The Dream Keeper

Bring me all of your dreams,

You dreamers,

Bring me all of your

Heart melodies

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the too-rough fingers

Of the world.

 -Langston Hughes

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         This poem sounds and feels like a lullaby to me. The line, “that I may wrap them in a blue cloud-cloth away from the too-rough fingers of the world” brings a sense of safety and comfort, just as lullabies do.  As children we were always told to dream often and pursue whatever made us happy, but that lesson became less and less frequent as we got older. It seems as if society teased us with the idea that we could and should do whatever makes us happy. Disney movies taught us to follow our hearts, and we would magically find happiness. As we got older, though, it seemed like the dreams we were meant to follow weren’t our own, but society’s. Through this poem, Hughes makes me feel like I did when I was little – when I imagined that I could fly or travel the entire world, and when I was convinced that I would. This poem brings me back to before my dreams were tarnished by “the too-rough fingers of the world”, and it gives me hope that maybe some of that magic I learned about is real, and maybe, if I follow the melodies of my heart, I’ll find true happiness.

 

“Often Rebuked, Yet Always Back Returning” – A Brave Poem

Often Rebuked, Yet Always Back Returning

 

Often rebuked, yet always back returning

To those first feelings that were born with me,

And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning

For idle dreams of things which cannot be:

 

Today, I will seek not the shadowy region;

Its unsustaining vastness waxes drear,

And visions rising, legion after legion,

Bring the unreal world too strangely near.

 

I’ll walk, but not in old heroic traces,

And not in paths of high morality,

And not among the half-distinguished faces,

The clouded forms of long-past history.

 

I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading –

It vexes me to choose another guide –

Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding,

Where the wild wind blows on the mountainside.

 

What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?

More glory and more grief than I can tell:

The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling 


Can center both the worlds of Heaven and Hell.

   - Emily Bronte

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          This poem is really amazing. I love the opening stanza, where Bronte talks about returning to the feelings that she had when she first entered the world. She talks about leaving the worldly pursuit of wealth and education and pursuing the dreams that she fantasized about when she was younger. This beginning of the poem really drew me in because lately I have been wondering about what it would be like to abandon the worldly expectations of finishing college and getting as much money as possible and instead, travel the world, getting odd jobs here and there and exploring different cultures.

          The point of this poem is to “walk where [your] own nature is leading”. I love that Bronte describes society, the place where her dreams do not lie, as the “shadowy region”, insinuating that her dreams are what are clear to her. Many people seem to see life as the opposite, where their dreams are pushed aside to the shadowy regions of their minds and lives and they must continue on a path that is not their own. Bronte’s own path led her to nature – to admire and explore it. She describes nature as being able to “wake one human heart to feeling”. It fulfilled her far more than society could. Bronte followed her own path to what made her happy. This poem inspires me to follow my own path, not the one that is chosen by society and its expectations. Although I may not be brave enough to abandon earthly securities, I hope that throughout my life I will take risks and pursue what makes me happiest, what will bring my heart to feeling.

 

 

“The Sound of Trees”- A Ponderous Poem

The Sound of the Trees

I wonder about the trees.

Why do we wish to bear

Forever the noise of these

More than another noise

So close to our dwelling place?

We suffer them by the day

Till we lose all measure of pace

And fixity in our joys,

And acquire a listening air.

They are that that talks of going

But never gets away;

And that talks no less for knowing,

As it grows wiser and older,

That now it means to stay.

My feet tug at the floor

And my head sways to my shoulder

Sometimes when I watch trees sway

From the window or the door.

I shall set forth for somewhere,

I shall make the reckless choice,

Some day when they are in voice

And tossing so as to scare

The white clouds over them on.

I shall have less to say,

But I shall be gone.

- Robert Frost

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I really like this poem because I love being in and admiring nature. I think trees are actually very interesting. It is amazing how old they are – how incredible would it be if they could speak and tell us of all the things they have seen throughout the years? I think that many people think of trees in this manner and that is why they are often seen as wise and knowing. I really like the way that Frost personifies trees when he writes, “They are that that talks of going but never gets away; and that talks no less for knowing, as it grows wiser and older, that now it means to stay”. He writes as if the trees talk to each other about moving about, but as they are rooted into the ground, they stay where they are. I wonder if when Frost writes that they now “mean” to stay, that he is saying that as they grow older and wiser, the trees realize that where they are is where they belong and they do not feel the need to look for another place to be. I think this applies to people who grow in wisdom and gain an appreciation for what they have in their lives so they do not feel that they have to go searching for more. I do not know if that is what Frost was saying, but that is how I feel when I read this poem.

“You’re” – A Clever Poem

                 You’re

Clownlike, happiest on your hands,
Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,
Gilled like a fish. A common-sense
Thumbs-down on the dodo’s mode.
Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,
Trawling your dark, as owls do.
Mute as a turnip from the Fourth
Of July to All Fools’ Day,
O high-riser, my little loaf.

Vague as fog and looked for like mail.
Farther off than Australia.
Bent-backed Atlas, our traveled prawn.
Snug as a bud and at home
Like a sprat in a pickle jug.
A creel of eels, all ripples.
Jumpy as a Mexican bean.
Right, like a well-done sum.
A clean slate, with your own face on.

-Sylvia Plath
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This is a really interesting poem. I did not know what it was about at first, but it turns out that it is about pregnancy. The poem became much easier to read and more enjoyable for me after I found that out. I love how the title of the poem, “You’re”, fits at the beginning of every line and it describes the unborn child. The lines that make it most obvious that Plath is talking about her unborn child are those that describe its position in her womb. For example, she writes “Wrapped up in yourself like a spool, trawling your dark, as owls do. Mute as a turnip from the Fourth of July to All Fools’ Day, O high-riser, my little loaf”. These lines describe the early stages of the fetus’ development where it is wrapped up in itself (like a spool) with no light in the womb and then slowly developing and growing (like a loaf). Also, it describes how the child cannot make noise for nine months, because it is in the womb. One of my favorite lines is “Jumpy as a Mexican bean” because it describes the unborn child kicking in the womb, and I think that it is a clever comparison.
I have not read much of Sylvia Plath, but I have always believed her to be a sort of dark person because of what I know of her – mainly her suicide. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the tenderness of this poem. I think that the last two lines are especially soft. Plath writes, “Right, like a well-done sum. A clean slate, with your own face on”. Her saying that the child is “right” is very nice, because I feel that it shows her affection and happiness for her baby. I love that this poem is a mother speaking to her unborn child in her womb. I think it is a beautiful idea, and it is amazing how the love of a mother radiates before her child is even born.
Also, here are some interesting things I’ve heard about this poem. I do not know if this is necessarily true or purposeful, but if you look at the last stanza, there is roundness at the end of the sentences from “jug” to “sum” that looks like a pregnant belly. Also, there are nine lines in both stanzas, representing the nine months of pregnancy. I find these ideas to be really cool!

“Sonnet XVII” – A Beautiful Poem

Sonnet XVII

I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:

I love you as certain dark things are loved,

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries

hidden within itself the light of those flowers,

and thanks to your love, darkly in my body

lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,

I love you simply, without problems or pride:

I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,

so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,

so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

-Pablo Neruda Neruda.html

I absolutely love this poem. It is written so beautifully and tenderly that it always stirs my heart and makes me feel content. One of the beautiful aspects of this poem is that his wife inspired Neruda’s writings, so he did not write something just because it sounded good, but because that is how he felt about the one he loved.

Neruda begins the poem by saying why he does not love her, which seems odd, but after reading on it makes more sense. He says that he does not love her as if she was a salt-rose, topaz, or carnation, but he loves her as if she was a plant that does not bloom. This seems to me that he is saying that he does not love her superficially, but he loves her deeply for who she is on the inside. I think this because he says that he does not love her as if she were a flower or gem, which are beautiful things that everyone admires, but as if she were a flower that doesn’t bloom, and no one would admire and love a flower that did not bloom because they could not see the beauty that it contains. I do not think that Neruda is saying that the one he loves is not beautiful; but that he loves her so deeply for the person that she is that the outside does not matter to him.

My favorite parts of this poem are the last two paragraphs. Neruda first writes that he cannot describe where his love for her comes from, but it is so real and pure that it comes naturally to him, and he does not have to think about it. Neruda finishes the poem by saying that he and his love are so intimately intertwined that it is as if they share the same body, and when his eyes close it is as if hers do too. This poem describes a mature, pure, and intensely deep love that connects two people in the most beautiful way.

“In a Dark Time” – A Poem of Self-Discovery

In a Dark Time

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,

I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;

I hear my echo in the echoing wood–

A lord of nature weeping to a tree.

I live between the heron and the wren,

Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

 

What’s madness but nobility of soul

At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!

I know the purity of pure despair,

My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,

That place among the rocks–is it a cave,

Or winding path? The edge is what I have.

 

A steady storm of correspondences!

A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,

And in broad day the midnight come again!

A man goes far to find out what he is–

Death of the self in a long, tearless night,

All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

 

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.

My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,

Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?

A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.

The mind enters itself, and God the mind,

And one is One, free in the tearing wind.

 

- Theodore Roethke

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The first line of this poem really drew me in. I feel that Roethke is saying that when you are going through a hard time in life, it can bring clarity to who you really are. The first paragraph paints a picture of loneliness and despair. He says he meets his own shadow and hears his own echo – there is nobody else but him. Although this poem speaks of depression, I think it also speaks of a self-discovery that comes from despondency. The line, “That place among the rocks-is it a cave, or winding path?” is the turning point in the poem. It seems that he no longer feels trapped in life, but that he feels as if there is a future, and he is seeing beyond his emptiness. I feel that the beginning of the poem is very dark and dreary and he feels a sense of hopelessness, but the end seems like he is more alive with a sense of a positive unsettling within himself where he is on the verge of finding who he really is.

One of my favorite parts of this poem is “A man goes far to find out what he is-death of the self in a long, tearless night”. It really describes to me the struggle of self-discovery. I think one of the interesting things about this poem is that it doesn’t have a happy ending where he has found himself and he is out of his dark time, but he is still searching and nearing his discovery of his true self, so I finish the poem with the sense of a lesson learned and a feeling of hope.

As a side note, a couple of days after I read this poem, I was sitting at a red light in my car and  I looked over to see a big church and on their sign was “In a dark time, the eye begins to see”. I thought this was so cool and the fact that it was on the church sign really reinforced the feeling of hope that I felt with this poem.

“i carry your heart with me…” – a poem of love

i carry your heart with me…

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

- E. E. Cummings

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This poem is very different from many others I have read. The first thing I noticed about it is that the poet, E.E. Cummings, does not use periods, spaces between punctuation and parentheses, or capital letters. Although he does not use periods, he uses parentheses and semi colons for a pausing effect. I am not sure why E.E. Cummings chose to write this poem in this way, but I think it may be so that the intensity of what he is saying is not broken. After reading this poem, I wondered if he wrote other poetry in the same fashion, and I found that he did. I wondered if he liked the aesthetics of all the letters being equal in size, or if he did not use periods because he wrote with an organized stream of consciousness. After a little research, I found that he wrote some poetry in a way to show simplicity and glee. After reading this poem, that explanation makes sense. It is incredibly interesting how E.E. Cummings wrote something, and then explained or added to it within the parentheses. For example, he writes, “i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)”. This really shows the warmth and affection that this poem contains.

I was not only interested in the mechanics of this poem, but I was captivated by its words. It talks about a relationship that is so intimate that it is as if the two people are one in the same. The first stanza of the poem says that wherever one goes, so does the other, and whatever one does, so does the other because their hearts are intertwined. This poem has an extremely tender, yet earnest sound to it. The reader is able to feel the deep love that the people share, and the passion that lies in their relationship.