The twelve sections of ‘Staying Alive’ by Neil Astley each have a distinct theme in which the contained poems link in with. Section two includes numerous poems that share an association with the theme of Roads and journeys. Out of this selection of poems, there are several poems in which this theme of roads and journeys is created in a distinct manner. These include two renowned poems by Robert Frost, ‘The Road Not Taken’ and ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’. Individually, these poems possess a diverse range of tone, images and language. While these poems share the same theme, they both explore the theme from different aspects and it is these aspects that demonstrate the importance of understanding the different elements of roads and
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This poem portrays a different angle of roads and journeys. Frost is putting emphasis on those parts of life when a person is brought out of their daily routine and left take in the beauty of nature. This is portrayed in the opening stanza of the poem: “To watch his woods fill up with snow” (Astley, 2002, p. 73) (line four) the reader is presented with this image of someone standing by watching as the snow falls and begins to fill up. There is a sense of tranquillity about this image and when linked with the line in the second stanza: “The darkest evening of the year” (Astley, 2002, p. 73) (line eight) one almost envisages that the poet is currently within a dark period of time with the “darkest evening” almost being a metaphor for this. On the contrary, this image could be exactly as described and not have any relevance to the poets own life. The reader is faced with this sense of mystery and there is no clear explanation of what is going through the mind of the poet. There is a continual of this sense of mystery as the poem ends quite ambiguously, the reader is left with numerous unanswered questions about why the poet was there. Some have stated that the poet could be taking somewhat of a break from the pressures of daily life, but is reminded that the time to stop and not yet
This poem portrays a different angle of roads and journeys. Frost is putting emphasis on those parts of life when a person is brought out of their daily routine and left take in the beauty of nature. This is portrayed in the opening stanza of the poem: “To watch his woods fill up with snow” (Astley, 2002, p. 73) (line four) the reader is presented with this image of someone standing by watching as the snow falls and begins to fill up. There is a sense of tranquillity about this image and when linked with the line in the second stanza: “The darkest evening of the year” (Astley, 2002, p. 73) (line eight) one almost envisages that the poet is currently within a dark period of time with the “darkest evening” almost being a metaphor for this. On the contrary, this image could be exactly as described and not have any relevance to the poets own life. The reader is faced with this sense of mystery and there is no clear explanation of what is going through the mind of the poet. There is a continual of this sense of mystery as the poem ends quite ambiguously, the reader is left with numerous unanswered questions about why the poet was there. Some have stated that the poet could be taking somewhat of a break from the pressures of daily life, but is reminded that the time to stop and not yet