This paper offers close readings of three canonical poems alongside one parody. It examines Carl Sandburg's "Grass" as an anti-war meditation in which the grass metaphor and insistent rhythm convey the futility of human conflict. It then analyzes Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," focusing on how metaphor, alliteration, and imagery express the theme of individual choice and nonconformity. Finally, it compares Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 — with its conceit of love as eternal summer — to Howard Moss's colloquial parody of the same poem, demonstrating how the contrast in language and imagery illuminates the essential role of poetic craft in creating meaning and emotional resonance.
The paper consistently demonstrates close reading: isolating individual words (e.g., "shovel," "diverged," "undergrowth"), identifying the literary device at work (metaphor, alliteration, repetition, conceit), and explaining how that device contributes to the poem's overall meaning and tone. This technique — moving from micro-level word choice to macro-level theme — is the foundation of literary analysis at the undergraduate level.
The paper is organized as three discrete but thematically linked analyses. The first section covers Sandburg's "Grass" (tone, rhythm, repetition, and theme). The second covers Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (metaphor, imagery, alliteration, and meter). The third section pairs Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 with Howard Moss's parody, using the juxtaposition to make a concluding argument about the indispensability of poetic language. Each section follows a consistent pattern: introduce the central device, cite evidence, and interpret its thematic function.
The following analyses examine three poems — Carl Sandburg's "Grass," Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," and Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 — alongside Howard Moss's ironic parody of the Shakespeare sonnet. Each analysis focuses on the poetic devices and techniques that shape meaning, tone, and theme.
In the poem "Grass" by Carl Sandburg, the poet uses a simple but effective image and metaphor to convey the futility and uselessness of war. Wars result in needless human death, and the grass represents the process of nature that relentlessly covers fallen corpses over time. The grass can be interpreted as a metaphor for the process of death itself.
The poet also uses images and specific words and phrases to suggest the tone and intention of the poem. The second line states, "Shovel them under and let me work — ." The word shovel is harsh and suggests the carelessness with which the dead are buried after a battle. There is also an almost sinister tone to the refrain "let me work." This suggests that nature is relentless in its disposal of the dead, which in turn reflects the mindlessness and waste of human life as a result of battles and wars.
The poem does not have a fixed rhyme scheme, but it does have a certain rhythm. The rhythm is insistent and sharp, supported by the repetitive effect of words like "work" and the central refrain. Repetition is also part of the rhythmic structure of the poem and is used to good effect in bringing out the poem's meaning. This can be seen in the repetition of the phrase "pile them high" (lines 4 and 5), which harshly and nonchalantly refers to the large number of dead bodies.
The poem also emphasizes that wars and battles are an ongoing and relentless reality in human history. This fact is highlighted by the question, "What place is this? / Where are we now?" (lines 9–10). This serves to stress the poem's main theme: that human history is also a history of war and battles resulting in a seemingly endless number of casualties.
The central message that Frost conveys in "The Road Not Taken" is that individual choices must be made in life and that unusual "roads" or directions sometimes have to be taken in order to be true to oneself. The theme of the poem can be related to the question of individual freedom and the courage needed to make choices that may go against the conformist norms and views of others. In other words, the poem is about the need to be an individual rather than simply follow the opinions of the group.
This message is conveyed through a number of poetic techniques. The most obvious is the use of metaphor. The road is a metaphor for the search for meaning and individual freedom in life, and it can also be interpreted as a symbol of life's journey.
An important aspect of the poem's meaning is the emphasis on the many different paths and choices available to a person. In order to convey this, words and images are used very precisely. For example, the word "diverged" in the first line emphasizes the different and often opposing avenues or choices in life. The poem has a flowing and conversational style but is in fact tightly structured with a regular metre.
The poet is also acutely aware that life choices are never easy. The image of the "undergrowth" in line five is indicative of the view that life's journey can be complicated and difficult and that the path ahead can be obscure and hard to navigate at times.
Among the many other literary devices used in the poem is alliteration. Alliteration adds to the poem's central meaning; in line three, for example, "wanted wear" is intended to stress the importance of taking the road less traveled rather than simply following the conventional choice. In the final line of the poem, the poet clearly states that taking an unusual and alternative route in life has "made all the difference."
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