What Frost Left Out

Posted bywordsandcoffee1Posted inPoetryTags:, , , , ,

The less-taken trail houses

weird wonders and wandering

questions. The path unfurls

without guidance: untraversed,

untold, and unpaved.

No footprints line the sand,

only solitude and tranquility,

the tranquility only found in solitude,

on tomorrow’s autumn road.

“The Road Not Taken” is still a favorite of mine, and why not? Is there an English teacher alive who cannot quote this poem from memory? I doubt it, mainly because I am horrible at memorization yet I can recite Robert Frost’s poem.

While I was student teaching just over a decade ago, I was always so impressed by the teachers who would recite poems from memory. Then, I coached Forensics for two years and heard “The Road Not Taken” and “The Raven” read by students approximately 8 nonillion times in those two short years. It was no longer quite as impressive.

Anyways, folks, I put this poem together for the Wea’ve Written Weekly challenge at the Skeptic’s Kaddish. This week’s prompt poem “Life and Death” comes from from Larry Trasciatti, who provided the following prompt:

  • “Write a poem that incorporates chiasmus.
    • Chiasmus: In simple terms, chiasmus happens when the writer says one thing and then says something very similar in the next line, but the grammatical structure has been reversed.
    • Examples of Chiasmus:
      1. Live simply so that others might simply live.
      2. In the pre-capitalist stages of society, commerce rules industry. In capitalist society, industry rules commerce.
      3. Love as if you would one day hate, and hate as if you would one day love.
      4. Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
      5. All for one and one for all!“

18 thoughts on “What Frost Left Out”

  8. Thanks for teaching me something new that is the chiasmus. I’ve always noticed it in zen-like or more Eastern quotes, but never had a word to describe it. Well now I do. This is why I can never really comment on poetry, because I know nothing about metres or assonance and the like. Anyway, thanks for this post!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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