The Road Not Taken | Analysis

1. In “The Road Not Taken,” Frost creates a metaphor to describe how he had once been forced
to make an important decision about his future. It is vividly presented in the poem that once in
our life we come to the point of “crossroads” wherein we have to make a tough decision.
2. Frost has used images of the sense of sights such as leaves and yellowwoods and these images
help readers to actually perceive things they are reading. The image of the road helps readers to
visualize the road providing a navigation route to the traveler.
3. The biggest symbols are the roads themselves, the ones that diverge in yellow wood. Each of
them represents a different path in life, not just a different way through the forest.
4. The tone of the poem is serious and does not necessarily have an optimistic outlook. On the
other hand, the poem is not about good and evil. It is about selecting the right approach to life
through making decisions. The speaker in the poem must make a selection with little to help him
make the decision. Both choices are similar.
5. The poem’s figurative meaning appears simplistic: the speaker has a decision to make—
marriage, career, college, money—and he has been given two choices. The choices are similar
in their ultimate return. He wishes that he could take both selections, but that is not possible.
Each of the alternatives brings a set of events and circumstances that will take the person’s life in
a different direction.
6. The rhyme scheme of “The Road Not Taken” is ABAAB; the rhymes are strict and masculine,
with the notable exception of the last line (we do not usually stress the -ence of difference).
There are four stressed syllables per line, varying on an iambic tetrameter base.
7. “The Road Not Taken” consists of four stanzas of five line
8. "The Road Not Taken" is a narrative poem. It reads naturally or conversationally and begins as
a kind of photographic depiction of a quiet moment in woods. It consists of four stanzas of 5
lines each.
A Psalm of Life | Analysis
1. The meaning of “a psalm of life” is a song of life, where the poet glorifies life and its
possibilities. It is an invocation to mankind to follow the path of righteousness, the right way to
live this life.
2. In the poem, the poet has presented an image of a broad battlefield and an image of a bivouac,
a temporary camp for soldiers. These images have successfully created a strong effect in our
minds. The poet wants us to take this life seriously, to win this battle of life like a hero. He wants
us to understand that we have come to this temporary camp called ‘life’ just to win it and we
have to go back to our real home, that is heaven.
3. The word "numbers" symbolizes the rigid, authoritarian, and bleak outlook that the books of
the Old Testament espouse. The young man refuses to accept this worldview, preferring to be
hopeful and optimistic. Even beyond the biblical associations numbers themselves are often
viewed as cool, (literally) calculating, and utilitarian –all things the young man does not want to
be. Footprints, on the other hand, symbolize what we leave behind; they are a mark, an
indentation. They indicate that someone has been here before, traversing the path that one is
currently traversing. There is also somewhat of a melancholy aspect to footprints, as they
reference the past, absence, and spirit rather than corporeal presence. The young man sees them
mostly as guides, though; he thinks men can take heart from observing the paths of those gone
before them.
4. The mood of the poem is uplifting, inspiring, and full of spirit. On the other hand, the tone in
this poem is determination or determined and encouraging.
5. The poem begins with the speaker contradicting a listener who wants to explain life to him as
a matter of number and figures. The rest of the poem is dedicated to the speaker trying to prove
this unknown person wrong. He describes the way in which he believes that no matter what
death brings; the soul will never be destroyed.
6. The rhyme scheme followed is A B A B, where the last words of the first line and the third
line rhyme, and alternatively the second and the fourth line rhyme in each stanza.
7. The poem consists of nine stanzas of four lines.
8. The poem is also lyrical in nature.
Sonnet 18 | Analysis
1. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 focuses on the loveliness of a friend or lover, the speaker initially
asking a rhetorical question comparing them to a summer's day. He then goes on to introduce the
pros and cons of the weather, from an idyllic English summer's day to a less welcome dimmed
sun and rough winds.
2. Some imagery used in Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare include a summer day, winds
shaking the buds in May, and a gold complexion.
3. Shakespeare uses symbolism to describe how his lover compares to the seasons other than
summer. Throughout the sonnet there is symbolism to the four seasons, starting with spring in
line three, “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May’, which represents being born or
rebirth. Summer, line four “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:” can represent youth
and how being youthfully beautiful does not last as long as some people would like. Lines seven
– eight, “And every fair from fair sometime declines, / By chance or nature’s changing course
untrimm’d;” represent autumn and the uncontrollable transition from youth to adulthood. “Nor
shall Death brag thou wandr’st in his shade” (line eleven) symbolizes death and the end of
things. Shakespeare’s lover’s beauty is represented here, except their beauty defies the ending of
summer, the change of autumn, and the death of winter; the lover is eternally youthful and
beautiful.
4. The tone of William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" is an endearing, deep devotion for a lover. The
speaker in the poem emphasizes his adoration of his lover's lasting beauty that will never fade
like beauty found in nature. The lover will live on in the speaker's poem.
5. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” is a sonnet written to preserve his lover’s beauty for all
eternity as stated in the final two lines, “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long
lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
6. The poem follows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
7. Sonnet 18 is composed of 14 lines in length, made up of 3 quatrains and a couplet, and is
written in iambic pentameter.
8. Sonnet 18 is an English or Elizabethan sonnet