Category: Poetry

What is poetry? Believe it or not, most people struggle to answer this question, most times individuals will give their interpretation as opposed to a solid definition. Even the major dictionaries differ at times in defining what a poem is. If you haven’t already, ask yourself. What is poetry? Can poetry be more than just a literary definition? Here’s what a few popular dictionaries have to say. Webster’s dictionary describes poetry as

metrical writing // writing that formulates a concentration imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm.

The Oxford dictionary describes it as “Literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.” If you look at the Macmillan dictionary, Cambridge dictionary, and Collins dictionary as well, all five-mention rhythm. This means the only trait each dictionary feels is important to mention in its definition of poetry is rhythm. The Norton Introduction to literature recognizes that trying to describe poetry is “a bit like trying to catch snowflakes; you can do it but at the very same moment the snowflake begins to melt and disappear” (Mays). It is good to know a brief etymology of the word poetry. It’s rooted in the ancient Greek word poiesis which means “to make” a verb or action word. It also stems from the French word poete and more directly from the Latin words poeta and poetria. These variations mean; “to create,” “build,” “pile up,” and “to an order”. For example, the shortest poem was ever written by the boxing legend Mohammad Ali is “Me? / Whee!” It’s only two words but these two words express community, appreciation as well as togetherness. Many different countries and cultures define poetry in different ways. But can poetry be more than just a piece of literary work?

Poetry is about creating something beautiful and meaningful. It’s not about confusing people or using sophisticated vocabulary it’s about meaning. Poetry can be very simple and simply understood. Poetry is so complex that it can’t be tied down by a single definition. The ammunition one could say that makes a weapon like poetry so powerful is the use of language. As Brodsky describes “Poetry is what every language hopes to become” (Dings). Poetry is a different way of using language. Poets use the verses in poems to talk about and transmit cultural information that is even present in today’s modern era. And while poetry was initially just spoken orally. Later, when the first forms of literacy came into being, soon after the poems began to be written down. In modern-day poetry, we can see the original form of sung poetry with today’s rap culture. Artists like B.I.G, Tupac Shakur and Ice, have helped the populists see that rap isn’t just music. Tupac uses his music to describe his gangster lifestyle. His song “Changes” is amongst his more famous works. He uses this song to voice major issues faced by the African-American community like racism and poverty and how they affect their everyday lives. If you listen to the words used, you can hear the poetry and can hear the message they are sending. That the racism and poverty being faced in the African-American community need to be dealt with. In the lyrics “I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black.” Tupac makes a connection with the color of his skin and being poor. Then be goes on to explain how being poor relates to crime: “My stomach hurts, so I’m lookin’ for a purse to snatch.” However, Tupac does say who is causing the problem, all he expresses is the solution. Which he describes as unity, the unity of the African-American community. This is what makes poetry so special, it has no set boundaries.

However, poetry can be found not only in a literary sense or in music. We can also see poetry present in the popular topic of politics. In the last couple of years since the 2016 presidential election the use of poetry to express the political view of others and to protest as well. In the times of Plato and Aristotle poets were not able to participate in political debates. Unless they agreed to be censored by philosophers and politicians because poets and their poems were seen to draw in and corrupt with their sentimentality and compulsiveness (Issacs).

In today’s modern world poetry isn’t seen as a threat to politics, but a form of protest. Though poetry has not been a threat in today’s world, it is still a weapon that can be used to call attention and petition to get others to see your view on a situation. Going along with the political with the ideas that philosophers deemed poetry as a way in which poets corrupted others, drawing them away from moral and ethical rights. The conflict between philosophy and poetry only seems to be an issue is when a philosopher builds an abstract. A republic in which morality and truth take precedence over everything. Poetry and philosophy will never have a relationship like that of a parent and their child. The main reason behind this is poetry will assume its beliefs but will never prove them. Poetries inability to provide evidence on their beliefs causes conflict with philosophers and their philosophies. However, philosophy can do the same thing poetry does, it just happens less often.

The reason one could say that people have such a hard time defining poetry is that it doesn’t have a singular definition. While poetry is form, meter, rhyme, simile, and metaphor. It can also be music, art, even nature. Poetry can be a disaster and madness. The joy and sorrow we feel daily. Poetry can be the journey we take and even some of our accomplishments. So, the question you must ask yourself is. What is poetry to me?

Various forms of literature has been taught in schools for centuries. They are essential to the basic objective of any English class. Literature helps students to become more sophisticated readers, more flexible writers and to develop moral imagination, ethical values, and a sense of vocation. Literature has a diverse collection of classifications, such as poetry, prose, drama, non-fiction, and media. One of the most unique styles of literature is poetry. Poetry allows a student to express his or her feelings without any sense of confrontation. It also allows a form of literature that students can genuinely enjoy creating or learning. Versification is also good for developmental learning and improving the understanding of yourself and others. Overall all forms of poetry are essential to any English class and should be taught in schools worldwide.

Poetry should be taught in school because of its exotic form and unique appearance. Poetry often includes information and ideas that students can identify immediately with and it “tends to draw the reader into an emotional identification with the character or situation” (Dunning 159). Poetry also “uses language uniquely” (Dunning 159) giving way for “students to think more objectivity”(Dunning 160). Poets often use language “differently from the way people speak” (Dunning 159) opening a creative passage for “a young reader to interpret or absorb indifferently” (Dunning 165). Poetry is often deliberately vague so that there are many different interpretations from the reader. Poets frequently “keep a lens of linguistic uniqueness between reader and experience” (Dunning 159) giving the reader conventional realities, “however artistically arranged” allowing students enough room from “reality that they can deal objectively with” (Dunning 159). In other words, poetry allows the reader to interpret the poets meaning and identify with the writer based on their own experiences, and biases.

A second reason for teaching poetry is that students get the power to share their emotions, opinions, and thoughts more freely and comfortably. One of the most effective ways for students to express themselves is “to use traditional modes of expression such as poetry” (Martha 563). Poetry is so good at letting people express themselves because “it is one of our most basic human impulses to set down words in a particular pattern (Muldoon 503). Poetry gives the student the ability to say what is on his mind, it “offers a medium in which to say what one dare not utter in conversation, but to inscribe on a verse” (Stein 188-189). Poetry allows students to share their “punishable secrets without fear of recrimination or judgment” (Stein 188). It allows students to express themselves on “content that may be religious, as in verse about mythical gods or direct religious instruction or invocation.” (Finnegan 166). It gives students the freedom to their opinion and thought, that they so desire and allows students to effectively express themselves.

To summarize, poetry is a powerful tool that can not only be used for students to express themselves but for people to appreciate the exotic form and unique appearance. It can often be vague to increase differing interpretations. It can be used to express anything from religion to anything that comes to mind. Poetry often includes Ideas and information that students can identify with immediately. Overall, poetry is an extremely effective tool to not only be taught in school for its exotic and unique appearance but its power to allow students the freedom to express themselves comfortably.

When you think of poetry, what do you think of? When I think of poetry I think of stanzas, a rhyme scheme, and a point trying to get across in a dramatic way. Poetry is the abstract work in which extraordinary power is given to the statement of sentiments and thoughts by the utilization of a particular style and beat lyrics all in all or as a class of writing. When dealing with poetry there are many different styles. Here are a few different styles, sonnet, limerick, haiku, narrative, epic, couplet, free verse, acrostic,

A sonnet is a short rhyming poem with 14 lines. The original sonnet form was invented in the 13/14th centuries by Dante and an Italian philosopher named Francisco Petrarch. The form remained largely unknown until it was found and developed by writers such as Shakespeare. Sonnets use an iambic meter in each line and use line-ending rhymes. A limerick is a five-line witty poem with a distinctive rhythm. The first, second, and fifth lines, the longer lines, rhyme. The third and fourth shorter lines rhyme. (A-A-B-B-A). A haiku is a form of poem writing that is renowned for its small size as well as the precise punctuation and syllables needed on its three lines. It is of ancient Asian origin. A narrative poem tells the story of an event in the form of a poem. There is a strong sense of narration, characters, and plot. It may be dramatic, with objectives and diverse characters. Narrative poetry may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. An epic poem is a lengthy narrative poem in grand language celebrating the adventures and accomplishments of a legendary or conventional hero. A couplet is two lines of verse that rhyme and form a unit alone or as part. A free verse is a poem that does not follow any rules. Their creation is completely in the hands of the author. Rhyming, syllable count, punctuation, number of lines, number of stanzas, .and line formation can be done however the author wants in order to convey the idea. There is no right or wrong way to create a Free Verse poem. An acrostic poem is a poem where the one letter in each line spells out a word or phrase vertically that acts as the theme or message of the poem. The word used for the acrostic can be the name of the person you are writing the acrostic about, a message such as Happy Birthday, or a theme such as Acceptance, Love, or Hope.

When having all these different options to choose from in poetry opens up a very big range for different types of work. The verse is so significant on the grounds that it encourages us to comprehend and value our general surroundings. A poem’s quality lies in its capacity to shed a ‘sideways’ light on the world, so reality sneaks up on you. No inquiry regarding it. Poems show us how to live. Poems resemble the Windex on a dingy vehicle window—it uncovers open the vulnerabilities of individuals so we would all be able to identify with one another somewhat better. Poems, in the event that we let it and grasp it, can offer us an approach to relate to each other. In its quickness, the verse is an advocate helping us to comprehend each other. Driving us away from hate to cherish, from brutality to leniency and pity. A poem is an artistic expression that has been made due for a great many years. We study it in school and we hear cites from sonnets dispersed throughout our life. However, do we ever really make the importance of it? Does it at any point make a difference? My response to you is yes it does. Understanding a poem as well as composing a poem or verse can definitely improve your life since it has improved mine. Poems are one of the most dominant types of composing since it takes the English language, a language we accept we know, and changes it. All of a sudden the words don’t sound the equivalent or mean the equivalent. The example of the sentences sounds new and musical. It is genuinely another dialect solely for the essayist and the peruser. No sonnet can be perused similarly, in light of the fact that the words mean something else to every one of us. Thus, many discover verse and subtle works of art. Notwithstanding, the issue in understanding verse lies in the way you read the verse. Perusing it legitimately brings about a general understanding, unbending and perpetual. Nonetheless, perusing it sincerely permits the subtleties and oddities to enter our comprehension. Any individual who composes verse can validate, you need to compose it with an open heart. So as a peruser, we should do likewise. All lyrics are bits of knowledge into the most private internal operations of the essayist’s brain and soul. To peruse it briskly and objectively would close the entryway on the relationship that the essayist is endeavoring to manufacture with you. Opening your heart to verse is the best way to get satisfaction from it. The great thing about poems is it’s basically a book is broken down into more simple ways to get a point across.

Many people believed that poetry can have a major impact on society because it can show life examples or it can give someone advice in what they are going through. Poetry can have an impact on a lot of things in society, things, or events.

For example in the poem The Obstacle the writer is giving people an example of what she had to go thru. Like in a line she says “and there that hulking prejudice sat all across the road”, the poet doesn’t mean literally she means that the obstacles she was facing where a lot. In another line she states that she tried to communicate, tried to talk to him as polite as she could, and she even yelled at the prejudice. But the prejudice didn’t even move a single finger and that can also represent all the struggles that society can face, for example if someone is being bullied the bully can be prejudice. At the end of the poem she says that she walked thru the prejudice as if nothing was there, that can also mean that nobody has to be there when someone is not working with you or bring you down.

When someone is facing a prejudice they have to do what the poet did and walk over and pretend like nothing is in your way. A connection that poetry has with society is that it can help society be built a little stronger or more open minded to whatever the have to be faced with even if the problem has to do with everyday problems or just facing something someone is afraid with. Another example of how poetry can have an impact in society is like the poem The Melting Pot, it talks about how many cultures and races come together and learn from each other. This can give a lot of impact on society because it can make everyone learn about each race and how they can learn from each other. For example this poem talks about how many people come to america can give many people a bigger opportunity and a chance to keep going forwards. Many of the people that were coming to america were facing a lot of problems and difficulties because many people just couldn’t fit in or society didn’t want them to be part of their “society”. In this poem it says of all the struggles they had to face in order to have a better education, better jobs, and much better future for them and their kids.

Poetry can have so much of an impact in society even if it relates to political topics and educational topics. They can help society look at things from a different perspective and not just one simple way to look at things, it can help people overcome fears, expand their knowledge, or even have a different perspective in life, or problems that person could be facing. In my opinion, poetry has a great and positive impact on society because it helps people and gives examples of what people have to go through in an everyday basis or even struggles they faced in the past.

Someone once said “poetry is my view on the world. The reasons that society makes a big part are feeling and perspective.

The reason being is because when something happens in the world it makes people feel a certain way about it. For example back in the day when women couldn’t vote it made them feel a certain way so they did a protest. A protest isn’t a poem but it is a good example of how society made women feel some type of way. When reading a poem some tend to give their emotions using words that rhyme to give a message or to get their point across. Another example of how feelings are expressed is whenever people who go through something happy in life usually make a quote. by these people making quotes, it is letting someone else read it and also feel the Emotion in the story or quote. Without society poems really couldn’t be made because in order to create a poem there has to be some sort of emotion or feelings towards an action.

When it comes to perspective a poet usually writes about their output on how they see something. For example, in the melting pot, the poet basically told the reader what they thought about America in their own words. Different people think different things about a topic But they put their words in a perspective for people to think. In the melting pot, they explained how America was liberty and they also explained different things about America that didn’t agree with others.

Even if it’s something everyone doesn’t agree on the way it is reading to make people think about society and how it made the person feel this way about it.

In the poem obstacles, the writer wrote about women’s suffrage in the poem the writer stated facts about suffrage but also the opinion of suffrage. suffrage is part of society so therefore society is giving an influence on the poem.

Without society, a poem wouldn’t be able to be expressed in a way for people to actually understand where the writer is coming from. Everyone knows about society so therefore everyone can put in input into what they think about it if a person doesn’t agree with the poem it’s usually because they have a different approach to society or their surroundings. In conclusion, society always plays a big part in poetry Because the lookout society there would be no poultry and without society, there will be no references because in lookout society there would be no poetry and without society there Would be no references or emotions upon their thought.

From Instagram to Facebook and Snapchat, it is clear that social media plays a role in today’s society. In fact, the implications of these online platforms are evident through the obsessive “refreshing” tendencies and mental health concerns of current citizens. In Sherman Alexie’s poem “The Facebook Sonnet,” the author satirizes these current controversies surrounding social media and illuminates their detrimental impact on contemporary society.

Sherman Alexie begins his poem by focusing on the false persona users employ on popular social media sites. Alexie creates a satirical tone throughout the poem to suggest the negative impact of social platforms. He begins by stating, “Welcome to the endless high-school reunion” (1-2). This reference alludes to those who are stuck in the past. As friendships leave and grow out of social networks, Alexie asks one question, “Why can’t we pretend every stage of life is the same?” (5-6) He continues his claims by stating “let fame and shame intertwine” (9-10). The shift in internal rhyme mocks users in a “sing songy” way. By intertwining internal rhyme of the words “fame” and “shame” it continues a light hearted tone in such a relevant topic. While media gives many a chance to reveal themselves, it can bring shame and dissatisfaction physically and emotionally. Alexie’s sonnet sends a message regarding the advancements in media, whereas they are more reliant on screen communication rather than face-to-face communication. Through the wide lens of technology, Alexie critiques current-day culture by demonstrating his negative thoughts on the effect of social media on social interactions.

Alexie also notes that the human obsession with social networking sites has led to the problem of self-perfection. Thus, he utilizes an oxymoron to deepen the obsessiveness related to media in stating, “Let’s sign up, sign in, and confess” (13). Alexie compares social media and religion and visits how he believes that society has become accustomed to practicing beliefs in front of a computer screen instead of in a place of worship. Continuing his oxymoron, he states “Here at the altar of loneliness” which demonstrates how society has become accustomed to practicing religious and personal beliefs through a computer screen (14). Social media has become its own “religion” for many, as constantly posting, checking in, tweeting and sending pictures is a part of many day-to-day routines. Similarly, Alexie develops sarcasm through an allusion between religion and media. He states “For God become public domain/ Let church.com become our church” (11-12). Alexie sarcastically recommends that there is “no need to leave our homes any longer, in order to find happiness, peace, or even worship” due to the obsessive usage in media (Denise 3). Alexie exposes how many turn to how people turn to religion as a sense of comfort against the hectic world, more and more are turning to sites such as Instagram and Facebook as support instead.

Further, Alexie illuminates how social media decreases face-to-face communication. Alexie regards the rapid decline in communication in his sonnet and adds elevated diction to develop his reasoning behind the problems currently facing society today. He continually states his strong disapproval of public networks by saying “The present” (5). The term “present” refers to how people are not generating the right amount of real communication. He also includes words such as “endless” (1) and “shame” (10) which help to carve “a desolate image” (Unknown 6) regarding users of Facebook. Overall, the Facebook Sonnet is built as a Shakespearean sonnet. A Shakespearean sonnet includes multiple views and ends with a rhymed couplet. Here, the rhymed couplet is “Let’s sign up, sign in and confess/Here at the altar of loneliness (13-14). He rhymes “confess” and “loneliness” to illuminate ….

Ultimately, Alexie touches on the power of the internet and social media. As he creates a satirical yet deterrent tone regarding media, he makes a reminder to minimize digital communication. The “Facebook Sonnet” showcases Sherman Alexie’s disappointment with the replacement of face-to-face communication with digital communication. He clearly believes that time shouldn’t be spent with loved ones rather than on a screen.

Many individuals who read poetry never think about the influence that poetry can have on society. Poetry can have a great influence on society. Poetry is often expressed of innermost thoughts, beliefs, desires, and struggles. A way that poetry can have an influence on society is when a poet has written a poem, and reader who is which in society reads the poem, they tend to go about things that are expressed throughout the poem differently or an individual that has read a poem that talks about a struggle in society, and has also been through a struggle may be influenced on how to overcome the next struggle.

Poetry is often a reflection of a poet’s innermost thoughts, beliefs, and desires, which can be personal to each individual. But first and foremost it can be interpreted in different ways by society and may take many different responses. Most poetry is made to elicit a reaction of a feeling within somebody, but not everyone can always agree on the reasoning of specific topics. It’s a valuable way of influencing people because of its emotional and communication action upon its people. If a poet can plot a person and challenge them the poet will have a chance of persuading them in a way of thinking or shaking them into their thoughts. Influencing society can be enacting such powers on a large scale.

A Poet normally writes a poem off of experience throughout society or knowledge about society. A poem that relates to how poetry can be an influence on society is An Obstacle by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In the poem, it states, “I was climbing up a mountain-path With many things to do, Important business of my own, And other people’s too When I ran against a Prejudice That quite cut off the view”. She was explaining how she was a feminist in women’s suffrage and was trying to gane voting rights, the prejudice standing in her way was her way of describing the government.

Society revolves around people’s feelings and thoughts. In the poem An Obstacle, Charlotte Perkins Gilman states “ So I spoke to him politely, For he was huge and high, And begged that he would move a bit And let me travel by. He smiled, but as for moving! — He didn’t even try. Basically saying that during the time of women’s suffrage, women pleaded to the government for their voting rights. The government heard what the women had to say and he listened but as for giving them their rights, it wasn’t going to happen. Poetry has an effect on people’s lives many people who read poetry mainly the individuals who can relate to whatever the poem is about, then the poem will have an even bigger influence on the reader.

In the poem The Melting Pot by Bryan Oden, he says “American immigration is a very great thing: New life, new job, new hope waiting, People come from all over the place. People come of all different race”. That line influences society because it tells society that American immigration does not consist of one race and place it tells society that anybody in America can immigrate to another place for either a new job, new life, or even new hopes. When society reads poetry they tend to believe or not believe it will be one of the two but there is still an influence happening.

In conclusion, poetry can have an influence on poetry by relating to the reader in a way that individuals can change their lives for the better on the worst. Society takes on to poetry the same way they take to the news, it’s all the same. Poetry can be news to a reader just how society can be news to a poet. Mainly saying that poetry and society are run hand to hand and that is how poetry can have an influence on society.

Robert Frost born on March 26, 1874 was an American poet and winner of 4 Pulitzer Prizes. Famous works include “Fire and Ice,” “Mending Wall,” “Birches,” “Out Out,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Home Burial” but arguably his most famous is ‘The Road Not Taken,’ which is often read at graduation ceremonies, as the poem is written about life choices. As a young boy Robert lived in San Francisco, California but due to the passing of his journalist father William Prescott Frost, Frost moved with his mother and sister, Jeanie, to the town of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Frost’s education started at Laurence High School where he excelled in writing. After high school he attended Dartmouth College for several months before returning home to work in a various array of jobs. After getting some money in the Bank Robert went to Harvard and he was loving it, unfortunately after two years he had to drop out due to health concerns. Him and his wife returned to Lawrence. By this point Robert had already received more than 40 honorary degrees yet he was still unknown.

Frosts first poem ‘My Butterfly: An Elegy,’ was published in 1894 in The Independent (a weekly literary journal company). In 1906, ‘The Tuft of Flowers’ and ‘The Trial by existence,” were published. 6 years had gone by and he could not find anyone who was willing to publish his other poems. Him and his wife Elinor decided to sell the farm and move to England hoping that there would be more publishers willing to take a chance on new poets. Within a month Robert found a publisher who would print his first book of poems, A Boy’s Wil and a year later North of Boston. It was at this time that he met poets Edward Thomas and Ezra Pound, these two men were soon to significantly change his life. Ezra and Edward were the first people who believed him and though he was extremely talented. Many of Frosts poems have been inspired by the English landscape like one of his most famous poems, “The Road Not Taken.” After becoming a well-known poet, Robert kept writing beautiful poems and became one of the most acclaimed poets to have ever lived. Unfortunately, On January 29, 1963, Frost died from complications related to prostate surgery. His ashes are interred in Bennington, Vermont.

The road not taken

Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, 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 travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

My topic for the poems is life choices and, in the poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’ our life is symbolised by the road. The path we don’t choose is ‘the road not taken’. The path we have chosen, decides our future, our goal. The poet’s important message that the poet is trying to give us is that we decide our future by the choices we make and if we make a wrong choice, we will regret it and we will not be able to go back. So, we must be wise when making choices.

Rhyme is used throughout the entire poem and it is used to create a ‘musical quality’. It also draws lines and stanzas together linking ideas and images therefore making it easier to read.

There are many metaphors in the poem like fork in the road and yellowwoods. The road in the poem is the metaphor of life, while the fork on the road is the choices we make as we navigate our path. Similarly, yellow woods are the metaphor of a person making a decision during a hard time in their life. These metaphors used in this poem emphasize the importance of different decisions we make in different situations and impacts they have on our lives.

In the third line of the second stanza, Robert Frost has personified the road “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” as if the road is human, and that it wants to wear and tear.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

The poem creates an impression of a snow-covered woods and tells the tale of a man who wanted to enjoy the beauty of the woods but could not. In real life we have many things that we are attracted to and many things to enjoy. However, we cannot simply because we are always busy with other things in our short lifespan. So, we have to carry on with our lives. This is the message that is inherent in the poem. The woods symbolise the beautiful aspects of life, as well as life’s desires and distractions. If we want to achieve our goals, we can’t be distracted by the beautiful things around us.

There is a repetition of the verse “and miles before I go to sleep” “and miles before I go to sleep” this creates rhythm and brings attention to the deeper meaning of this verse.

Imagery is used to build the story into something vivid and real in the readers imagination. The poet has used the images such as woods, house, lake, and these images help readers see the woods as a source of comfort to a lonely traveller.

The following phrases are examples of alliteration from the poem: “watch his woods”, “sound’s the sweep”, “His house”. The alliteration is used to create rhythm and mood therefore making it easier for the readers to read.

Rhyme is used throughout the entire poem and it is used to create a ‘musical quality’. It also draws lines and stanzas together linking ideas and images therefore making it easier to read.

In this poem, Frost presents a speaker who has an internal conflict on which of the two roads he or she should take. The Road Not Taken dramatizes the conflict between choosing which road to travel and which to leave behind. When making choices it is often impossible to see where a life-altering decision will lead. (Rizzoli) One should make the decision swiftly and most importantly, with confidence. Life always presents us with choices, but when making a choice it is more than that, the choice becomes a decision. Frost mastered the idea of ambiguity since he never indicates whether the choice the speaker made was the right one or not.

The form of a poem gives it structure. Form can be one of the toughest elements to identify when doing an analysis. A poem’s form is basically how it looks and sounds. (Rizzoli) The Road Not Taken is a simple-looking poem that consists of four stanzas of five lines. Rhyme schemes almost make up the form of a poem and in this case the scheme is ABAAB. The rhyme of a poem could be described as a pattern of rhyming sounds, while the rhyme scheme is the recurrence of similar-sounding words at the end of a line. For example: (A) Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (B) And sorry I could not travel both, (A) And be one traveler, long I stood, (A) And looked down one as far as I could, (B) To where it bent in the undergrowth. (Frost)

The backbone of any story is the theme. The theme is the underlying message of what the character ultimately realizes. (Deen) Themes bring depth and consistency to any form of writing and themes make it easier for the reader to follow. Robert Frost presents a theme about choices and how a person is defined by said choices. The speaker is confronted with the fork in the road and must make a choice. One choice would lead the speaker down a path that was “grassy and wanted wear” as to where to other path was “more worn by passersby.” (Frost) The narrator must be content with his choice because there is no going back to change his mind. This theme resonates with society today because no matter of what our choices and decisions are, we must live with that decision and take ownership of the consequences.

Imagery is very important in The Road Not Taken because the narrator is describing the setting for most of the poem. Imagery is mostly visual however there is also a little bit of auditory imagery when the speaker sighs. (Deen) The paths that divide in the forest are portrayed as grassy, fair, and about equally worn. The imagery gives a lot to the meaning to the poem because, without the description of nature and its paths, it wouldn’t make sense that the narrator was wavering about choosing a certain path.

The love for poetry and writing can begin with the simple routine of listening to the soothing voices of parents reading a bedtime story. Unfortunately for some, such as Sherman Alexie, the sweetest routines are not a part of their everyday life while growing up. Defying the odds at a young age, Alexie survived life-threatening health conditions, bullied because of his appearance and an absent father. As a boy, he was much influenced by his maternal grandmother, a spiritual leader of Spokane, who died when he was eight. Because of his health, he was unable to compete physically, so he became instead an avid reader. Growing up around alcohol addictions, Alexie himself picked up the deadly habit, however, after he caught his big break in 1990 publishing “Hanging Loose”, he has credited his work with giving him the incentive to stop excessively drinking. Li Young Lee, born in 1957, Jakarta, Indonesia also grew up with a brash story: migrating from country to country, family imprisonment and death. Through it all, Lee was fortunate enough to have stories read to him, although his care for poetry did not begin until he attended the University of Pittsburgh. Both Sherman Alexie and Li Young Lee draw on their personal and historical experiences to write about alcohol abuse and one’s beliefs, inviting readers to know who they have come to be.

Similar to their backgrounds, both Lee and Alexie’s poetry correlate yet oppose one another. Alexie evokes sadness and resentment, yet leaves readers with the sense of respect and compassion. Involved with crime, alcohol, or drugs, Alexie’s protagonists struggle to survive the constant battering of their minds, bodies, and spirits by white American society and their own self-hatred and sense of powerlessness. For example, “Good Hair” is a poem about Alexie’s youth and stories strung into each strand of his long hair. As he was questioned for the reasons as to why he cut his hair, some simply asked if it was because he looked Indian, if it was because of his murdered father or if it was because of his sister’s death and her funeral. For example, “Did you cut your hair after booze murdered your father? When he was buried, did you baptize him with your braids?” Alexie was able to take a simple action such as cutting his hair and twist into a story about nativity. His works primarily cover themes like poverty, racism, and alcoholism which were common problems faced by the Native Americans.

Lee’s poems depict an eerie silence as he uses his personal experiences and memories to relive his haunting past. His poetry vividly paints his memories of the refugee experience and stories recounted by his family members. Lee’s work is also influenced by the classical Chinese poets Li Bo and Tu Fu whom he was taught to recite as a boy. Equally important is his father’s Christianity and Lee’s consequent exposure to the King James version of the Bible, Which still remains a powerful source of inspiration for him. He explores the question of individual identity in a world where people have been uprooted from their culture and have not found acceptance in their new land. Many immigrants remain silent about their past lives, and their silence adds to the confusion and loss of identity that characterize the immigrant experience. Lee faces the complex issues of displacement as he seeks to understand earlier generations of his family. Lee talked about his belief in the oneness of all things in an interview with Tina Chang for the Academy of American Poets: “If you rigorously dissect it, you realize that everything is a shape of the totality of causes. What’s another name for the totality of causes? The Cosmos. So everything is a shape of Cosmos or God. It feels like something bigger than me—that I can’t possibly fathom but am embedded in.”

The central idea in Alexie’s “Good hair”, shows his dark humor and sarcasm “Hey, Indian boy, why (why!) did you slice off your braids” is a line repeated throughout the poem. Alexie wants to know why this boy cut off his braids when they were significant to his culture. They showed the world that he was a Native American and he was proud of his hair. Throughout the poem, Alexie asks the boy several sarcastic questions about the reason why he cut his hair such as,” Did you weave your hair with your siblings’ and mother’s hair, And pray that your father grave-awakes and climbs your braids?” He simply cannot understand why the boy would do such a thing. America has taken over the lives of Native Americans, so why not keep one of the only things you can to show your heritage, your braids.

The central idea in Lee’s “Self Help” emphasizes Lee’s feelings of alienation once entering the United States. He conveys how he never felt at home in the US, that it was his ‘adopted country’. He never felt like he truly belonged and explains how even though starting over in a new country seemed like a good idea, once his family moved, the promise of a fresh start and new opportunities faded. This is a piece of work that looks back on his father’s painful imprisonment and its effect on the family.

Both poets conveyed there such pain in the poems they have written. They showed the struggles they have faced growing up, they showed the torment they’ve endured. Both Sherman Alexie and Li Young Lee draw on their personal and historical experiences to write about alcohol abuse and one’s beliefs, showing us how you can overcome abuse and neglect at a young age.