Symbol & Allegory The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yello

What emotional responses are evoked by the imagery?
On the literal level, what does this poem present?
-­‐a writer who interrupts himself to have a look at his
digging in a flower garden below his window. He is
reminded of his father twenty years earlier, and by that
memory is drawn farther back to his grandfather
digging peat from a bog for fuel.
n What clues us in to the idea that there is more going on than meets the eye?
n The title and the emphasis on varieties of the same task carried out in several
different ways over a span of generations alert the reader to the need to
discover the further significance of this literal statement.
n The last line is metaphorical, comparing digging to writing.
n Is it also symbolic?
n No, because on a literal level, one cannot dig with a pen.
n The symbolism comes from the act of digging itself.
n Digging has meanings that relate to basic needs – for warmth, for
sustenance, for beauty, and for the personal satisfaction of doing a job
well.
n In the concluding metaphor, one basic need is implied, the need to remember
and confront one’s origins, to find oneself in a continuum of meaningful
activities, to assert the relevance and importance of one’s vocation.
n Meanings ray out from a symbol, like the corona around the sun or like
connotations around a richly suggestive word.
n However, we must use tact and careful judgment when interpreting symbols.
n Although Blake’s “The Sick Rose” might remind us of drug addiction, it would
be unwise to say that Blake uses the rose to symbolize this.
n This interpretation is private and narrow. The poem allows it, but does not
itself suggest it.
n Just because a symbol is “open,” we cannot make it say anything we choose.
We have to stay within the range of the text.