Frost and Forche: Two Poems
In "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost works the theme of choice into the poem by depicting a traveler -- a walker in the woods -- who is stopped at a fork in the road: one way is the worn path, which indicates that its taker will get where he wants to go; the other way is less worn, greener, and will likely lead the traveler to some foreign destination or even cause him to become lost. Frost describes the two paths and their likely outcomes and then tells of the choice that he made and comically adds that this choice has "made all the difference" -- because, no doubt, it has extended his walk by a good few hours.
Some read into Frost's poem an allegorical remark as they surmise that Frost is advocating that we travelers of this earth take the "road not taken" and discover where the unworn path goes. They see the poem as a promotion of discovery, of voyage, of curiosity and freedom. Frost himself wrote the poem after being inspired by a friend who literally often took the "road not taken" on his walks and ended up getting lost. For Frost the poem was a literal representation of a friend -- but he fully embraced the allegorical reading that others applied to it as well, taking great delight in the power of poetry to raise in the reader's mind something wholly unexpected that even the writer did not quite fathom at the outset. Thus, this poem itself even allows the reader to take it in a direction that was "not taken" in the mind of the writer when it was written -- and of course as Frost admits, such does make all the difference, because it informs the interpretation and thus supplies the meaning.
"The Colonel" by Carolyn Forche is equally as capable of producing a symbolic reading, as the last lines of the poem deliver a message that could be taken allegorically: "Some of the ears on the floor were pressed to the ground" is an obvious reference to the oppressed peoples whose rights the Colonel does not care for -- and the severed ears of these people which he collects and disdains at the same time indicate his complete lack of disregard for the people under him: "I am tired of fooling around he said....
As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves." The theme of oppression is woven into the poem by the actions of the Colonel as he displays his arrogance and brutality for the poet who is his guest at the table, first by bringing out the severed ears -- the evidence of his brutality -- and then by throwing them on the floor, the evidence of his disregard.
Both poems are written from the 1st person perspective -- but in Frost's poem, the speaker is the main actor, whereas in the poem by Forche, the speaker is more passive, watching and listening to the Colonel and reporting on what he does, as he is the main actor in the poem. The dramatic situation arises as a result of the narrator arriving at a kind of crisis point: for Frost, the point is making a choice between two paths in the woods; for Forche, the point is when the mask comes off the Colonel and he deteriorates from dinner party to host to cruel madman. Although the Colonel is mainly the speaker in the poem, the perspective is not his own but Forche's -- and the Colonel even acknowledges this, after his display of barbarism, saying, "Something for your poetry, no?"
Both writers use powerful figurative language in their poetry to convey a sense of dramatic tension. Even though Frost's poem is more light-hearted, this language is still employed so as to bring to the mind of the reader the immensity of the decision that faces the walker: "I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence," Frost says -- and the figurative force of these words suggests that the "road" is one that will change the course of his life forever and lead him to a destination that he could not possibly imagine for himself but from which he will, no doubt, be able to look back at this singular moment and realize that it was this decision that shaped all the rest of his life. The literal meaning of these words, however, is that this road less taken will simply lead him on endlessly through the woods, cause him to sigh, and make him feel that he has been walking for "ages and ages." In "The Colonel" the figurative language is more explicit: when the Colonel…
