Poetry Foundation

Robert Frost

• The Road Not Taken

In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost describes a fork in the path. He is upset since he cannot travel on both path at the same time and needs to choose one. In order to select one path, he looks as far as he could to see where the path leads to and then decide to take the other one which is less travelled. He even thinks to come again and try the other path but later realized that he won’t be able to come back. He also thinks that the things would have been different if he had chosen the other path.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173536

            

• Fire and Ice

In his poem “Fire and Ice” Robert Frost questions about the destruction of world by fire or ice. He symbolizes fire as a symbol for desire and ice as a symbol for hate. He even thinks that ice is also destructive too.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173527

William Wordsworth

• London, 1802

In his poem “London, 1802”, William Wordsworth addresses that dead Milton should be alive today and help England to raise her up again. The poet urges Milton to inspire and teach again elements like manners, virtue, freedom and power since the selfish English men have forgotten all that used to make them glorious. He describes Milton’s soul like a star and his voice like the sea. In second half of the poem, he praises about Milton’s character and life.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174797

• The World is too much with us

William Wordsworth addresses the relationship between the human being and nature. Today, we lost our powers in collecting stuff and thinks less about the nature. William addresses that the connection between sea, winds and flowers and human being is out of tune. He likes to be a pagan which will make him less unhappy and watch the gods like Proteus and Triton. 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174833

Emily Dickinson

•  After Great pain a formal feeling comes

Dickinson in this poem talks about the hardships in life and how those pain and struggle lead to a better tomorrow. The speaker of the poem questions his heart about how he handled that pain in the past. He also compares the feet to a robot which can understood by words like: Feet, mechanical, go round. Dickinson, uses the symbol ‘-‘ very often in this poem to maintain the flow and tempo of the poem.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177118

• Success is counted sweetest

This poem of Emily Dickinson is a work that talks about Success. She in this poem explains the real meaning of success, and tells that success is counted sweetest but, only by those who have never succeeded. In, order to understand nectar one has to suffer is what she explains in the last two lines of the first stanza. In short, the poet is trying to say that those who have succeeded without any hard work or pain can never tell the true meaning of victory. 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174990