Robert Frost Poems

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The Road Not Taken

Content

Quotation

Technique

Effect/ how it shows purpose

- The narrator comes upon a fork in the road and is forced to choose between the two.

- Both paths are equally worn and equally overlaid with un-trodden leaves.

- The speaker chooses one path, telling himself that he will try the other path some other day – although it is unlikely that he will get the opportunity to do so.

- He says that in the future, however, he will claim to have taken the less-travelled road.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood…”

“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”

Extended Metaphor and Assonance

Personification – as grass is inanimate and inanimate objects can’t “want”

The purpose is to address how we all make choices in our lives, and the choice to do one thing means choosing not to do something else.

Both quotes represent the purpose as they show that the narrator had to make a choice, despite both his options offering him the same disadvantages and advantages.

Nothing Gold can Stay

Content

Quotation

Technique

Effect/ How it shows purpose

- Nothing gold can stay.

- For nature, it’s hard to keep its first green, gold. Trees that are golden early in spring don’t remain gold, and soon mature to green.

- For trees, it’s difficult to keep their flowers, as flowers are replaced by green leaves in summer.

- Eden, a beautiful place to live in, isn’t so beautiful anymore.

- The refreshing golden hues of sunrise turn into the scathing heat of a summer day.

“Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.”

“So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.”

“Nothing gold can stay.

Nothing Gold can Stay”

Personification

Personification

Repetition

The author’s purpose is to show the cycle of life – how nothing can stay gold forever.

Through these quotations, Frost demonstrates that the most beautiful things in life are also the things that have the shortest lives – this correlates with his purpose.

Out, Out

Context

Quotations

Technique

How it shows purpose

- A young man is cutting firewood with a buzz saw, when the boy’s sister announces that it is time for dinner.

- Out of excitement, the boy accidently cuts his hand with the saw.

- When brought to the hospital, he begs his sister to not let the doctor amputate his hand, but inwardly realises that he would not survive.

- The boy dies while under anaesthesia, and everyone goes back to work.

“The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard

And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,

Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.”

“Call it a day, I wish they might have said

To please the boy by giving him the half hour

That a boy counts so much when saved from work.

His sister stood beside him in her apron

To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,

As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,

Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—

He must have given the hand.”

“The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,

As he swung toward them holding up the hand

Half in appeal, but half as if to keep

The life from spilling. (lines 18-21)

Personification/ Onomatopoeia

Personification

Simile and Metaphor

Frost intended to show the boy’s innocence in this situation. This poem was written in 1915, during World War I, and so through this boy, Frost represented all the young boys that were forced to leave their childhoods behind to join the war.

The purpose: to show the boy’s passivity and innocence in this situation.

In quotation two, the boy’s passivity and innocence is shown, as Frost blames the bystanders and his sister for the situation, saying that they should have called it a day for him, or given him a short break.

A Considerable Speck

Context