Similarities Between The Road Not Taken And The Chosing

Is it safe to assume that the choices we make affect our lives? The poems “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “The Choosing” by Liz

Lochhead both deal with the theme of choices and the consequences of choices we make. The poem “The Road Not Taken” is more symbolic (“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”), metaphorical (“And looked down one as far as I could/to where it bent in the undergrowth”) and it gives the reader some advice for their own choices. “The Choosing” is written more with a personal tone as if the poet had experienced the events first hand (“But from the top deck of the high-school bus/I’d glimpse among the others in the corner”). I enjoyed the second poem for its more personal tone rather than the general wise

In the middle of the poem the poet changes her rhyming scheme to a more regular one that the sporadic beginning. I think that she has chosen to do this to emphasis how important this section of the poem is and ultimately draws the reader. During the end of the poem the reader finds out what the speaker in the poem has real resentment that her choice was education over a social life but I think she’s angrier over the fact that it was not her choice.

The first three stanzas of the poem give the reader an image of two little girls that were equal in every way. The repetitive use of the word “equal” also emphasises this point. In the second stanza there is a form of alliteration which in this case is “Collin’s Children’s

Classics” and this is used to give the poem a smoother sounding flow.

I think that the first three stanzas are effective in conveying this message because they are told in such a personal way that it makes the reader thing that they are true events. They are also effective because the reader focuses more on specific details

I remember

The competition for top desk

At school service

And my terrible fear

Of her superiority off