Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey, life. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head. People make decisions every single day, many times without realizing it. Whether it is an important decision as in buying the right car, or a little decision as in deciding what to eat for lunch. Although it may be the wrong choice later on, no one has the ability to look into the future. However, one must move on even though it may not be the right choice. Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken and Gwendolyn Brooks Sadie and Maud are two short, yet very profound poems about the decisions and paths we choose to take in life. They demonstrate the belief that it is the road one chooses that ultimately makes a person.
Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" shows the uncertainty as to which road of life a person should choose. It raises the evident question of whether it is better to choose a road in which many travel, or to choose the road less traveled and explore it yourself. In this poem the speakers tone, diction, and setting help to illustrate the struggle a person goes through in their lives to pick the right road to travel. Choosing the word yellow helps to set the mood of the poem as being positive. After reflecting back on the path the speaker chose to take in The Road Not Taken, he says, I doubted if I should have ever come back. The speaker uses the imagery of two paths in the woods, signifying two different directions in life that he had to choose from.
In the first verse of the first stanza, Frost says, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," which is seemingly a very important part of the poem.This line is a metaphor in which Frost uses the woods to represent life.Using this as an image helps to have a better understanding of the complexity of the problem that the speaker is facing.If you were standing at the edge of some woods, you would not be able to clearly see what was ahead of you, because trees and branches would obstruct it. In addition, "And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood" depicts how it is always difficult to make a decision because it is impossible not to wonder about the opportunity cost, what will be missed out on. There is a strong sense of regret before the choice is even made and it lies in the knowledge that in one lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every road. Frost examines each path and sees that both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black. This indicates a brighter side to the poem, the fact that he is not alone, and that there is more to his life that is worth living.
Sadie and Maud was another famous poem that reflected the times in which the poet, Gwendolyn Brooks grew up. During the 40's and 50's, women across America were torn between choosing a simple domestic life and having a career. Brooks' take on this controversial topic is apparent in the poem Sadie and Maud. If the reader looks closely at the tone, concepts, and figure of speech in this poem, he or she can understand the meaning of the poem rather easily. The major theme can be described in the Latin phrase carpe diem, which means, seize the day, so in other words a person should live everyday as if it is their last.
Maud, went to college and did everything that was asked of her, yet she is the one at the end that is all alone and afraid of life. In the first Stanza Brook says, Sadie scraped life with a fine toothed comb. This describes her lifestyle, which was to live every day to its fullest and not to worry about what others think. Maud ends up alone after shaming Sadie and her daughters and after her parents have already passed away. On the other hand, Sadie enjoys every moment of life and has two daughters to love and care for, and she dies young and happy. These two metaphors teach the reader a lot about both Sadie and Maud, and they help him or her to see the overall theme of the poem. Brooks appears to be saying that although you may be staying home, it does not mean you will not have a fulfilling life. Back in the 40s when this poem was published and even today, women are looked down upon for having babies outside of marriage. Overall, the poem tells us to live our lives and do what we feel is best for us, and that always doing the right thing may not make you happy at all. It is important to make decisions based on what you feel is right for yourself, that does not mean to completely disregard others opinion, but in the end the life decisions one makes will only affect themselves. Sadie and Maud are perfect examples of two sisters on different sides of the spectrum. Sadie was one of the livingest chicks in all the land. This makes one believe that Sadie was a wild child while Maud is described as the sister who went to college, Is a thin brown mouse, She is living all alone in this old house. It seems as though Brook wants the reader to visualize Maud as a very lonely and depressed women, who went to college and lived life for her parents rather than herself. Which just proves that having a career will not necessarily make you a happy person. Maud went to college while Sadie was ridiculed for her lifestyle and having two children out of wedlock. Sadie passed on her lifestyle and vest for life to her daughters when she passed away, yet Maud was left all alone in her house. Brooks point was not to say that to lead the best life possible you must find a happy medium between living life carelessly and living life by the books, it just shows that the decision you make in life must be for yourself, ultimately they are the choices that make all the difference in ones happiness.
In conclusion, the poems The Road Not Taken and Sadie and Maud are about the one thing that every living human being will and does encounter, multiple times through out life, it is the privilege of being able to choose.With that choice, we must also face the fact that we can never go back and explore the other road not taken.These two poems in there own way show the reader that it is important to live life for yourself, with no regrets. The decisions one makes in a lifetime will essentially build a persons character and future. Some choices are easier to choose while other takes some contemplating and time to resolve.However, when it is all said and done and we have made our choice, there is still the road we did not choose and often times we wonder about the road not taken.
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