1.) The speaker may not necessarily believe that they have taken the "wrong" path, but instead they are cursed with a feeling of wonder. " the grass is always greener on the other side" He regrets that he is but one man, and that he will not be able to back track and venture out onto the second path. No matter which path he had taken, he would have been left with the feeling of doubt, the same feeling that anyone who has mad a difficult choice will feel.

2.) The path is symbolic of any choice of great significance, to go to war, to have an abortion, to go to college, or to drop a nuclear bomb on Japan. Any of these choices will lead to many more choices and thus many more forks in the road. Frost is not literally speaking of a road, but symbolically representing life and the many different paths one can take. Furthermore, the speaker knows that although the paths appear very similar from the fork in the road, he notes "{[I]Looked down one as far as i could/ to where it bent in the undergrowth;" he mentions how far he can look down the path, but in truth the path will bend and twist and he knows not where it will end or fork again. This unknowing factor is Frost bringing the essence of luck to the choices of our world.

Fight and Flight
The Road not Taken is an important and well known poem, it obviously applies to a choice made along the path to heaven, and one of the oldest and most important choices people are forced to make is whether or not to fight once confronted. Imagine President Truman's choice whether to drop the bombs on Japan. He probably wished he could know how either path would end, but there was no way of knowing. The poem says "I shall be telling this with a sigh/ Somewhere ages and ages hence" sigh is possibly the most debatable word in the poem, besides the closing line. Sigh i take to have a negative connotation, as in after getting a short ways down the path he starts to believe he has taken the wrong one.
If like Apple Picking, frost is referring to himself, than perhaps the diverging wooded roads was his choice of becoming a poet? Obviously he took the road less traveled and became a poet. At that time he could not be sure he could even feed himself off of a poets wages, the choice of fading into the rows of normality the safe choice, or stepping out into the spotlight of greatness and perhaps dying of hunger, could be a hard one.

I went with truman because shelby didn't like my poet idea =(

APPLE PICKING

After Apple-Picking
After apple picking is a suicide note left by a man who jumped off of a ladder at the top of an apple tree. After a long life of apple picking, he simply could not take any more, "The rumbling sound of Load on Load of Apples coming in For i have had too much". This man was tormented by the never ending task of apple picking, and even though his soles were sore from long days atop the ladder, he still had no time to collect all the apples. Even worse he occasionally dropped apples and even though they were not damaged, he through them away "as of no worth" You may notice that fall is also a motif of the story, he uses the word to describe the ice he drops and breaks and again as he drops the apples. Clearly he is hinting toward his impending doom.

apple picking

After Apple-Picking
1.)How does the poet convey so vividly the experience of “apple picking”? Point out effective examples of each kind of imagery used. What emotional responses do the images evoke?
Robert frost conveys the act of apple picking in such an amazingly vivid way because he uses imagery that covers the senses of sight, smell, touch, and sound. He describes sight of the apples he’s picked intimately “And every fleck of russet showing clear”. Frost uses colors and shapes to provide a rich and deep apple-picking world. This type of imagery gave me a sense of frostiness and also inspires a hunger for apples.
His second type of imagery is smell. He is almost lethargic as he smells the apples “The scent of apples; I am drowsing off” they impress upon the reader a sense of calmness and peacefulness… and again a hunger for apples
Thirdly is the sense of touch. “I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough”, my instep arch not only keeps the ache/ it keeps the pressure of a ladder- round”, strangely enough touch was the most vague type of imagery used in this poem, It left an otherworldly or out-of body-experience sense, as if the reader was in a dream already.
Lastly is the imagery of sound. “ The rumbling sound of load on load of apples coming in.” the sound here is massive, rumbling is used to give an impression of power and awe, even if it is only the sounds of apples rolling into the cellar.
2.) How does the speaker regard his work? Has he done it well or poorly? Does he find it enjoyable or tedious? Is he dissatisfied with the results?
The speaker has done his work to his fullest, but there are still apples in the tree. He regrets not being able to complete his duties. I believe that at the beginning of his labor he did enjoy this work, he says “Of apple picking I am overtired of the great harvest I myself desired” So he did in fact wish to pick apples, but now he is sick of it.
3.) The speaker predicts what he will dream about in his sleep. Why does he shift to the present tense in line 18 when he begins describing a dream he has not yet had? How sharply are real experience and dream experience differentiated in the poem?
Frost switches to present tense during his dream because he is so sure that this is what he will dream about. Apple-picking is all he knows; therefore it is only logical that he would dream of apple-picking. He has become so accustomed to the feel of a ladder beneath his soles that even in his dreams this feeling will haunt him. The difference between real experience and dream experience in the poem is not only in the new first person form, but also
4.)The poem uses the word SLEEP six times. Does it, through repetition come to suggest a meaning beyond the purely literal? If so, what attitude does the speaker take toward this second signification? Does he fear it? Does he look forward to it? What does he expect of it?
In this poem sleep is used as a euphemism for death. Long sleep especially supports this idea. The speaker is so tired that he knows he will be incapacitated for some time, whether he will rise in the spring like a woodchuck, or simply pass on like an ordinary human. The worker does not fear death, for he has worked hard. I do think he speaks of the apples he left on the boughs with regret. Why would he fear such a thing, he expect his afterlife to be like a dream, a dream in which he is doomed to experience the life he has already lived for an eternity. This is an especially demonic hell, to be banished to a life of tedious labor; this guy must really love apples to be looking forward to it.
5.) IF sleep is symbolic both literal and metaphorical, other details also ma take on additional meaning, if so, how would you interpret the ladder, the season of the year, the harvesting, the pane of glass, What denotation has the word “essence”
The ladder is his path to heaven, he has spent so much time on the “ladder” that he hopes his eternal sleep will be very peaceful and restful, but he knows he will dream of apples. Fall- it symbolizes the end of everything, trees are shedding their leaves and animals are preparing for the long hell that is winter. The harvesting is a metaphor for all of the work the speaker has done throughout his life, apples in the cellar are goals and small deeds he has accomplished and done. Apple on the ground are his failures, and apples still in the tree are experiences that he has yet to try, and never will have the opportunity to.
6.) How does the woodchuck’s slumber differ form “just some human sleep?”
A woodchuck sleeps through the winter, and then comes back from the dead in the spring. Furthermore because the woodchuck is an animal, it will not be haunted by bad dreams throughout its sleep. Humans do not have the ability or privilege to sleep for 4 months of the year, and if he dreams of apples and the pain of the ladder in his instep, than no doubt the speaker will not be able to sleep for very long either, before he awakes with the horror of realization that next fall he must go back to apple-picking.

alfred prufrock

The poem analysis of Z. Quinn Weber
8-24-08
English 11 AP

The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock
I believe this poem depicts a middle aged man, weary of many dates because sometime long ago he met his loved one, but instead of proposing, he missed his shot at love and she was eternally lost to him. Now he not only mourns because he has lost his true love, but because he is growing old and fears he will never find another as right as his first love. Because he has found only one suitable woman so far, he tends to compare the other women he’s met to his dream girl, making them far inferior and stupid. He tells his story as he prepares for another party; envision him pacing back and forth in front of the mirror, dreading another miserable party. He has also become self conscious; he fears that even if he can find a woman to love again, she will find him too old, too grey, and too thin to satisfy her.
As the class has discovered several details in them poem that would lead to this man going to a party, I will reveal two pieces of the poem that support my theory that he a. has loved a woman before, and b. is nervous and doubtful about meeting another perfect woman.
In lines 50-65 Alfred describes his past relationships with women, he says he has known them all, known the eyes already, and known the arms already, which would indicate that he has dated many girls before. Lines 80-86 have such select phrases as “should I have strength after teas and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment of crisis?” also especially important was “I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid.” The first quote shows his fear of again being too scared and wishy-washy to act upon his love and save his relationship, the second I believe proves he ahs loved before. He watched as his great love flickered, and then died.
To make clear my second point, that he is extremely nervous to go to the party, and doubtful of meeting another perfect woman, I take lines 38-45. These lines plainly state how he is wondering if he is even physically capable of attending a party. He acts out in his head every negative scenario in a desperate plight to convince himself not to attend this festivity. I also agree with the conclusion drawn in class. “In the rooms women come and go, talking of Michelangelo” talking is too vague of a word, it does not have the elegance that the rest of the poem does. Coincidently it is one of the few times he is describing women, this would tend to suggest he has a pessimistic view of women. He portrays them as stupid and subordinate to men.
Clearly, Alfred Prufrock is a miserably lonely man, constantly mourning the one that got away. The poem gives great discriptions of how it would be to be aging and hopelessly out of love.