Magomnang, Nameah M.

Literary Criticism

The Road not Taken by Robert Frost
'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth'
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I
doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I
took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Summary
The poem describes someone standing at a fork, or turning point, in a road in the
woods, trying to decide which path he's going to take. He looks down one road as far as he can
see, and after thinking for another minute, decides to take the other one because it looks like
nobody's been that way yet, and he's curious about where it leads.
He thinks maybe he might come back another day and try out the other path but he has
a feeling that the road he's chosen will lead him to new places and discoveries, and he probably
won't be back. He thinks wistfully about that road, the road not taken, and where he might
have wound up if he'd gone that way instead. Part of him regrets his decision, but he also
realizes that the things he's seen and the places he's gone because of the direction he chose
has made him who he is.
Analysis
The theme of the poem is about the journey of life because he think to decide which of
the two road he want to choice. My opinion in that road saying by frost is when you are have
two option in your life which is you need to decide to choice the best for your life that you
don’t regret it.The poem consist of cinquain means 5 lines in each stanza. It has rhyme which is
called the end rhyme because the rhyming words is occur at the end of two or more lines. The
rhyming is ABACB DEDFE GHGIH JKJLM. The poem written in iambic tetrameter strong syllable
followed by weak syllable and four iambic in one line.

The figure of speech used by frost, fist is personification “the path wanted wear” it
giving a life to a non-human which is the path want but the truth is only human can want.
Metaphor the comparison of two unlike thing like “and looked down one as far as I could, to
where it bent in the undergrowth” the speaker look down the path and can only see so fatt, in
the same way that we can’t see the consequence of our choice in future. Also symbolism the
word “the road not taken” symbolize the journey of life.
Ozymandiaz by P.B Shelly

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Summary

The speaker recalls having met a traveler “from an antique land” who told him a story
about a ruin statue in the desert of his native country. Two vast legs of stone stand without a
body, and near them a massive, crumbling stone head lies “half sunk” in the sand. The traveler
told the speaker that the frown and “sneer of cold command” on the statues face indicate that
the sculptor understood well the emotion (or passion) of the statue’s subject. The memory of
of those emotion survive “stamped” on the lifeless statue, even though both the sculptor and
his subject are both now dead. On the pedestal of the statue appear the words, “My nay is
Ozymandias, king of king:/ looks on my work, ye might, and despair!” but around the decaying
ruin of the statue, noting remain, only the “lone and level sands” which stretch out around it.

Analysis

Ozymandias is a sonnet because it’s consist of fourteen-line poem. The whole poem
follows ABBAABBACDCDCD.It is different from the traditional rhyme scheme. There is no
specific meter although the poem is written in iambic pentameter in which unstressed syllables
followed by unstressed syllables.
 The figure of speech used in the poem imagery “two vast and trunk-less legs, shattered
face, wrinkled lip and desert” it used ti visualized the readers the status of the statue.
Alliteration “cold command,” “boundless and bear,” “lone and level” the repetition of the same
consonant sound in the same line such as the /c / /b/ /l/. Consonant the repetition of
consonant sound /s/ in “half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown”. Personification is “and
wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” it means to used human emotion by refers to the
broken head of the statue.

The reporter discuss about “Formalism’ it is a school of literary criticism and literary theory
which is focus on a external part of a literary text that would you criticize. It is focus on external
part of a certain text which is Elements of poetry if you are criticizing a poem. Focuses on the
rhyming scheme, theme,meter, mode and etc. If you are criticize a novel, you are also focus of
the Elements of a novel. Formalism is the study of a text, which is mean the external part of
text and does not take into an account the internal part of a text because it’s not include in
formalism

The relevance of the topic is since the subject is literary criticism expected that the topic
is all about critic a literary piece. Then formalism is connected to literary criticism because it’s
all about analys, evaluate, and critic a literary works,

As I observe to the report she is not ready to report because she did not mastered the
topic and she is out of the discussion I mean she go beyond and include the some topic which is
not included like the new criticism. Her topic focus on what is formalism.. She didn’t delivery
well and she need to loud her voice because I can’t heard.