“Fire and Ice” By Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice, 5
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

 

So this defiantly is not the longest poem but man does it pack a punch. I originally wasn’t going to write about this because it was so short but it kept popping into my head, especially with all the end of the world talk lately.

I have never really been real big on poetry. I enjoy it but I don’t go home after school a read it for fun. When I read The Road Not Taken and I realized how much I loved that poem, I looked up more of Frost’s poems. I read the Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and After Apple-Picking and Home Burial and although I liked them all, my mind kept being drawn back to Fire and Ice. The title itself invokes so much imagery.

I was taken away by the form of this poem. It seems so simple at first but at the same time is complex and clearly thought out. Each line ends with either a –ire, -ice, or –ate rhyme and contains either four or eight syllables. The lines are written in the seeming natural iambic, but this is not strictly followed through all of the lines. A strong enjambment in line seven is placed there by Frost to enforce a desired effect. (Which will be explained laterJ )

I simply love the say that Frost eludes the truth by putting forth an aphorism and leaving the question unanswered and the trust once again remains ambiguous. I think most of this poem’s effect comes from the contrast between the simple clipped accuracy of the vocabulary and the vague significance of the subject.

However, I have to say, the greatest asset to this poem, its greatest triumph is its form. Throughout its entirety the language remains simple, but the overwhelming, rising anticlimax of the final two lines is lost. These final lines draw their soft-kill power from the form: the rhymes, the juxtaposition of their short length and their hard-hitting punch. The final blow is the enjambment in line seven, which builds the necessary tension needed for the perfect letdown. Frost seamlessly pulls off an offhanded comment about the end of the world, which is one thing, but he accomplishes this feat masterfully by making it poetry.

“The Road Not Taken”  By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
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:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

I had never read this poem before now. Now that I have, I realize that many, like myself, have misunderstood it. Most, probably by not reading but simply seeing the title. This poem is not about taking the road less traveled. It is, however, as the title and the poem states, a tale of man who comes to a fork in the road and must choose one way or the other. Both are equally traveled and equally covered with leaves. The speaker chooses one and tells himself that one day he take the other, thought he knows that it is unlikely he ever will have the chance to do so. He states that someday in the future when he is telling this story to others he will say he took the road less traveled, which will add a slight twist and a little drama to this somewhat everyday story.

Forks in roads and paths in woods have been symbols and metaphors of life and lifeline since ancient times. They hold crises and decisions. The fork in this poem is identical on either size, symbolizing the nexus of fate and free will. Because each side is the same, we are free to choose but we don’t know what we are choosing between. Therefore our decision is determine by the culmination choice and chance. I personally love this poem because it does not advise. It doesn’t say “take the left” “take the right” “take the road less traveled”. Like life, the man must decide on his own and the reader never knows which he chooses.

  The title also lead me to think that in the future the man may even regret the decision he made. Not because of the outcome but because of what he may have loss by not taking the other road. This is one of those poems that every person should read and I believe every person will have a different view of it. Many views may be similar but each person has to relate the poem to their own lives and so each view will be, should be, slightly different.

Are We An Island?

          In British Literature last year, as a class we read “No man is an Island” by John Donne. While looking for classic short stories to read for these blogging assignments, I came across this piece and reread it. I realized that I had a whole new look on the meaning behind these words. I couldn’t find the short essay I had written about it last year, but I feel my thoughts on this topic have changed enough for me to write them out. So here I go

I wish the quote “no man is an island” could be accurate for this century, but I think it only accounts for half of our world. I think the world has more good but the bad is louder. The purely good at heart can never be “islands”, because they have God. Anyone who has a loving supportive family also can never be an “island”. Though, if you were to look at the media only, one could easily form the idea that every man is for himself. Newspapers, magazines, TV shows, movies, action news and music, they all shout the evil in the world. The good is hardly ever seen.  How are people supposed to learn how to do good for others if they never see it being done? There are thousands and thousands of amazing people achieving amazing accomplishments each day, but they don’t get put on the cover of the news or shown on the 6 o’clock news.

Personally, I see the quote “no man is an island” as meaning that no one needs or is left to stand alone, but sadly in today’s world people do have to stand alone. Just in the United States, there are so many problems. We boast about being so united, together. We are the United States but are we really. Do each of us really care about the people we pass on the streets or in the grocery store or even in the halls of our schools? I think today’s quote is “see no island, hear no island, speak no island”. How many people walk past a homeless person and see a cold hungry person down on their luck and in need of a helping hand, or do they just see an dirty man who needs a haircut? Do you hear a person being bullies by someone else and really hear what is happening? Can you hear the pain being inflicted on that person by a human being just like them? Are problems like these ever talked about enough and taken seriously by enough people? So many people in today’s world don’t even realize how much they don’t see and hear each day. The world could be so much better if more people were aware of the problems and took time to help improve them.

I do realize that there are many, many people in the world today fighting to make it a better place. I am just saying that to succeed in making the world better, more people need to be aware and to care about what is happening to others around the world. To ensure that no person is ever an island, everyone needs to think and care for others. If every person is caring and working to help others and not just themselves, then in the end everyone will be cared for. Then, and only then, will no one have to stand alone.

 

 

Minimalist or not Minimalist

                I read the short story “In The Place Where Al Jolson is Buried” by Amy Hempel.  I had been trying to figure out what I wanted to write about this story. I finally just decided to write about minimalist. The factors that make up the qualities of the minimalistic fiction piece are fairly straightforward yet deciding if a piece of writing is minimalist is not always easy. Minimalist stick to short words, short sentences and short paragraphs; in this circumstance it leads to a short story. These stories are usually filled with simple, easy to understand vocabulary, with equally simple sentence structures. There is little figurative language, meaning very small amounts of symbolism and allegories. More often than not, there is minimal description of the characters, major and minor, and minimal setting description. The imagery used is short and to the point and any background information is sparse. Only the absolutely necessary background information is shared. Brand names are usually used to quickly describe objects or characterize a person. In most minimalist stories, there is very little action and the stories are often written in the present tense. Most progress with a nihilistic tone and the stories often end with no resolution.

                “In The Place Where Al Jolson is Buried” by Amy Hempel is difficult to place in one category of writing; however , there are many qualities that her story contains that match the style of a minimalist.  For example, the first paragraph of the second section contains both short sentences with simple structures and easy vocabulary. This trend continues throughout the story. The story also provides very little background information. How did the friends meet? What is causing Al to die? Another clue that this story is minimalist is that there is very, very, very little action. The narrator is mostly sitting with Al and talking, she has some minor flashbacks but that’s about all the action seen. The story does have a nihilistic tone throughout the entire piece. The final hint that this is a minimalist story is that fact that there is no resolution.

                There are many different types of minimalist writers. Another minimalist writer is Ann Beattie. I have had a few people tell me she should be on my “to read list”. Her most recent work is titled Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life. Critics called it “narcissistic”, “self-indulgent” and “splendidly tricky”. An excerpt from this story showed short sentences with simple structure and vocabulary. It contained almost no figurative language and only small pieces of character description. Another critic said that "Nothing in Mrs. Nixon is perfectly clear, and that is the source of its power."