Bellringer

1
Bell-ringer

• Think of a choice you made that marked a turning
  point in your life- trying out for a sports team,
  signing up as a volunteer in your community,
  standing up for a friend- whatever! Go back to
  the moment when you made the choice and imagine
  that you made a different one instead. Jot down
  notes about how you envision your life would be
  different if that turning point had never
  happened.

2
Robert Frost

• He won four Pulitzer Prizes
• He read one of his poems at the inauguration of
  President John F. Kennedy

3
Robert Frost

• 1874-1963
• Frost lived much of his life in rejection. He
  flunked out of college a couple of times. He quit
  several jobs. His son died. He had to sell his
  farm. Editors would not publish his poems.
• After much struggle and a move to England, his
  poetry was finally published.
• Even then, his first two books only earned him
  two hundred dollars.

4
What was his inspiration?

• His world, his home, New England
• Forest, landscapes, animals, chores, seasons,
  community, all elements of nature and life.
• Where have we heard of these topics being used?
• Haiku
• The things that inspired him were the very things
  he wrote about, and these are also the very
  things other people connect with (even today)
  especially since he wrote about them in such an
  accessible way.

5
The Pasture

• I'm going out to clean the pasture spring
• I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
• (And wait to watch the water clear, I may)
• I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too.
• I'm going out to fetch the little calf
• That's standing by the mother. It's so young
• It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
• I sha'n't be long. -- You come too.

6
Can you summarize that poem?

• Yes, it sounds like he is inviting a friend or a
  family member to share in his experiences in the
  pasture.
• But it also seems as if Frost is inviting the
  reader to come into his world- a world of the
  natural, the wonderful.

7
Digging a little deeper...

• Frost often used natural images to discuss deeper
  issues.
• His poem Birches does that just as we hear the
  story of a boy who climbs the flexible birch
  trees.
• Why does the boy climb them? How does he do it?
  Is he very careful? What is the deeper message
  about life?

8
Also, remember to look for

• Imagery- words that make you think about sensory
  details- describe how things look, smell, taste,
  feel, sound.
• Onomatopoeia- words that sound like the thing
  they describe (ex. crack, shatter, boom, bang,
  etc.)
• Simile- comparing two unlike things using the
  words like or as
• Let's read!

9
What do you think?

• What does this poem suggest about how we are to
  live our lives?

10
Putting it all together

• It is neat to see that poetry truly is an art in
  its own right. You should now be comfortable
  with identifying poetic elements within a poem
  and analyzing how use of such elements allows the
  author to effectively and authentically
  communicate insight into the human condition
  (remember, this is what most call THEME).

11
Frost was a master poet

• Famous poet, T.S. Eliot, once said that Frost was
  writing about the whole world, about feelings,
  and ideas that everyone, everywhere, understood.
• I couldn't agree with him more.
• Thats why Frost is so popular, even today! He
  wrote about the human condition- the thoughts,
  feelings and experiences all people share-
  EVERYWHERE!

12
Independent Practice

• Now that youre familiar with analyzing poetry,
  lets look at another Frost poem.
• This is one of his most famous works The Road
  Not Taken.
• Refer back to your bell-ringer about a time when
  you made a choice

13
Literary Focus- Contradictions

• Life is full of contradictions. A particular
  choice you once made might have improved your
  life in some ways, but made it worse in others.
  Was it a good choice or a bad one? It was both-
  and it was neither. Such contradictions- two
  feelings, events or statements that are opposites
  are often captured in literature.

14

• When you come across contradictory statements in
  a literary work, you might first assume that one
  statement is true and the other is not, or you
  might try to figure out which statement the
  writer really mean. However, sometimes both
  statements are true in some way, a ndt he writer
  meant both of them.
• Robert Frost called the Road Not Taken a tricky
  poem. Well read it several times to try to
  figure out exactly what Frosts attitude is about
  life and the choices we make.
• Well also analyze it for use of poetic devices.

15

• Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.
• And sorry I could not travel both (2)
• And be one traveler, long I stood
• And looked down one as far as I could (4)
• To where it bent in the undergrowth
• Then took the other, as just as fair,c
• And having perhaps the better claim (7)
• Because it was grassy and wanted wear
• Though as for that the passing there (9)
• Had worn them really about the same,

16

• And both that morning equally lay (11)
• In leaves no step had trodden black.
• Oh, I kept the first for another day! (13)
• Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
• I doubted if I should ever come back. (15)
• I shall be telling this with a sigh
• Somewhere ages and ages hence (17)
• Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
• I took the one less traveled by, (19)
• And that has made all the difference.

17
Lets answer some basic questions first.

• Where is the road not taken?
• In the woods.
• Why does the speaker choose the path he took?
• Because it appears less frequently traveled.
• Does the speaker think he will get a chance to
  travel the other road?
• No he seems to realize that one he has made a
  choice there is no going back.
• What is the result of the speakers choice?
• It has made a great difference in his life by
  influencing later choices.

18
Now, lets go back and analyze.

• Rhyme scheme
• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Consonance
• Symbolism
• Imagery
• Irony (verbal)
• Theme.