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This is emphasized by his regret that he cannot take both roads and be one traveler: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / and sorry I could not travel both / and be one traveler..."(Frost,122) Also, when he decides for one road, he hopes he can take the other later, but afterwards realizes that this is no longer possible since one decision leads to another, and there is no going back. Frost thus discusses life ironically, realizing that one decision can change one's whole life, without the possibility of going back and taking a different road.
In Auden's poem, the Unknown Citizen, the irony is even plainer to see. The death of the citizen who had lived like a saint in the "modern sense" of the word is very ironical. To live as a saint in the modern way, is to be a social character, who lives only according to all the general accepted principles. The citizen had gone to war exactly when he should have and had opted for peace when there was peace, had been the perfect employee, had given five
... All these symbolize an acceptance of the general way of the world: "...in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,/for in everything he did he served the Greater Community."(Auden, 145) to Auden however, the citizen is only his target for irony, as he implies his modern, saintly life was merely a false stance in front of the world. The citizen is "unknown" and has left nothing to humanity in fact. Moreover, his life was neither free nor happy: "Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: / Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard."(Auden, 145) Auden's irony is definite as he emphasizes that there seems to have been nothing wrong with the citizen's life, but it was certainly not a good one.
The three poems thus make use of irony to suggest that life itself is very ironic and beguiles men into thinking they are living it the right way.
Works Cited
Auden, W.H. Collected Poems. New York: Doubleday, 1984
Dickinson, Emily. Poems. New York: Oxford, 2002.
Frost, Robert. Selected Poetry. New York, 1983.
Works Cited
Auden, W.H. Collected Poems. New York: Doubleday, 1984
Dickinson, Emily. Poems. New York: Oxford, 2002.
Frost, Robert. Selected Poetry. New York, 1983.
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