1.
Robert Frost provides an excellent example of a poet who experienced a long career, going from strength to strength. Accessible and down-to-earth, his work still continues to be popular today. Although much of his material is based in New England, most readers can relate to it as he focusses so accurately on human experience; his themes have not aged over the years and show no sign of aging in the future.
“The Road Not Taken” is a famous and well-anthologized poem in the history of American poetry. A common interpretation asserts that the narrator in the poem is upholding independence and non-conformity. A close reading of this poem reveals that the author is not moralizing about choice, but is commenting that choice is unavoidable. However, the effects of choices are not clear until they have been lived out; this is what is at the heart of the poem. This poem is a good example of a subject to which most people can relate, regardless of where they are from.
The final line of the poem reads: “And that has made all the difference” (Frost b). Some readers may consider this to mean a beneficial difference that has been brought about in the narrator’s life as a consequence of the choice he made. However, as the difference is in the narrator’s future, he actually has no idea, at this point, whether the difference will be positive, negative or, arguably, neither.
Similarly, “The Wood-Pile” contains themes which most people find easy to relate to. Poems such as this one tended to be inspired by experiences in Frost’s own life and followed strong themes of loss, mundane activities, and his aloneness.
2.
“What my lips have kissed” and “Love is not all” are both sonnets, retaining many traditional features of the form. In "What lips my lips have kissed," Edna St. Vincent Millay discusses numerous romantic relationships ending and the sadness connected with such losses. This poem is centred around the key themes of change and loss. The theme of change is demonstrated must explicitly through the season related imagery. The theme of loss is visible all through the poem but is most noticeable in the final two lines.
Similarly, “Love is not all” discusses love between a woman and a man. However, the overriding theme is that the narrator does, in fact, believe that without love, a person has nothing. Unlike “What my lips have kissed,” this poem’s theme is not restricted to relationships with people of the opposite gender. Rather, it refers to love within a larger context.
The significance of metaphor in “What my lips have kissed” is crucial in offering the reader an symbol of the poet’s suffering emotions. The metaphor starts in line nine where Millay compares herself to a “lonely tree” (Millay). This metaphor involves her previous lovers being symbolised by the birds, and her bed is symbolised by the boughs of the tree. The poet uses imagery of the seasons right through until the end of the poem. The final two lines read: “I only know that summer sang in me / A little while, that in me sings no more” (Millay). Here, the poet is saying that when she looks back over her life, she recognises that she was once happy and that “summer sang” (Millay) in her, but that nowadays, summer “sings no more” (Millay).
While both poems seem to be about relationships between the two genders, “Love is not all” is actually about love in general, whereas “What my lips have kissed” reflects on the experience of losing romantic love with someone of the opposite gender.
E.E. Cummings is well-known for his experimental use of punctuation and also, in many of his poems, the lack of any punctuation at all. For example, “My father moved through dooms of love,” and “Anyone lived in a pretty how town,” are both poems which contain no punctuation. However, they both follow fairly rigid form and contain structured rhyme. “Buffalo Bill’s” on the other hand, contains no punctuation but is set out differently. However, in all three poems, and others, such as “In just,” the poet has used space as punctuation, whether that space be in the form of line breaks or large gaps between words. “Buffalo Bill’s” is, arguably, the most interesting poem of all four in terms of layout, form and punctuation. Although its appearance is unconventional and surprising when a reader first sees it, its space instead of punctuation follows a perfect logic that, when read aloud, makes the poem easy to follow and appreciate. In addition to adding space between words and lines, Cummings also takes space away where it would usually be present. Line six reads: “onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat” and here, it is clear that Cummings has deleted the space between words in order to speed them up.
Although a page poet by trade, some people believe that Cummings’ work is best appreciated when read aloud, as this demonstrates how logical and intelligent his use of the page really is.
Works Cited
Cummings, E.E. “Buffalo Bill’s.”
Cummings, E.E. “Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town.” The American Tradition in
Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Cummings, E.E. “My father Moved Through Dooms of Love.” The American Tradition in
Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Cummings, E.E. “In Just.” The American Tradition in Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Frost, R. “Mending Wall." The American Tradition in Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Frost, R. "After Apple Picking." The American Tradition in Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Frost, R. "The Wood Pile." The American Tradition in Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Frost, R. "The Road Not Taken." The American Tradition in Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Frost, R. "Birches.” The American Tradition in Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Frost, R. "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening." The American Tradition in
Literature. 2009. 12th Ed. Vol 2.
Vincent Millay, E. “What my lips have kissed.” The American Tradition in Literature. 2009.
12th Ed. Vol 2.
Vincent Millay, E. “Love is not all.” The American Tradition in Literature. 2009. 12th Ed.
Vol 2.
