Comparing The Road Not Taken And For Poets

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost and For Poets by Al Young are two different poems, with two different authors, that share a variety of similarities. These similarities include tone, symbolism, and overall meaning. The Road Not Taken and For Poets are similar poems. Despite seeming like apples and oranges, both poems are birds of the same feather. For starters, both poems have a similar overall meaning. This meaning of the poems is to take risks. The Road Not Taken is a poem that gives two very similar choices, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... Then took the other, as just as fair,” (Frost 1,6). These lines show the first part of the meaning of The Road Not Taken. The roads are symbolic of choices, and the speaker is forced to choose between the two. The subtle differences between the two paths, or choices, are shown as well, with the first path being described as

The symbolism in both poems reflects that of decision making. In For Poets, “Dont turn into a mole” (Young 3), “mole” is symbolic of becoming boring, and the speaker uses this symbolism to emphasize the choices that the reader will need to make. “Come on out into the sunlight” (Young 7) is symbolic of being social, and encourages the reader to choose to be social, rather than an introvert. Likewise, in The Road Not Taken, the speaker symbolizes both paths as choices. The first choice is seen as taken quite often, “bent in the undergrowth”(Frost 5), while the second choice is viewed as taken very little, “it was grassy and wanted wear” (Frost 8). While these two choices are similar, and may have the same end result, the paths are symbolic of taking risk. You can make a choice that many others have made, or you can make a choice very few have taken. This is the dilemma that Frost is imposing. These paths are the choices we must make in life, and they make “all the difference” (20) as Frost writes. As such, both poems have very similar