Sample Poetry Paper (English 102)

Writer 4
obligations. This burden appears in the line, “But I have promises to keep” (Frost 1070).
As one critic says, “In ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ there is the
attractiveness, the seductive and dark beauty of the woods filling up with snow. But there
are also the promises to be kept. The speaker shows his humanity by his full awareness of
this beauty, but he defines it finally by returning to the world of action and obligation”
(Ryan 133). However, in the poem “The Road Not Taken,” the speaker must choose
which path to take, even though it appears he will be faced with second-guessing himself
somewhere down the line. This dilemma is apparent in the lines “I shall be telling this
with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence:”(Frost 143). One critic describes this sigh
as follows: “The ‘sigh,’ of course helps characterize the ‘I,’ and provides the fist hint that
the poem is a gentle parody of the kind of person whose life in the present is distorted by
nostalgic regrets for the possibilities of the past, who is less concerned for the road taken
than for ‘the road not taken’” (Barry 12).
In both of these poems, the speakers face life-altering decisions. In “Stopping by
Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the speaker must choose between succumbing to
loneliness and depression or realizing there is much to be gained by living a happier life.
In “The Road Not Taken,” the speaker must choose between two paths, not knowing
what the future holds and if he will ever have the chance to find out what was passed up.
In short, these two poems indicate a human being’s struggle with uncertainty and the
inner turmoil that surrounds many of life’s decisions.