Poetry Project

Poetry Project

By, Julia Nowak 811

My Voice

Pencil to paper

And worlds collide.

It’s part of my human nature

It’s what makes me feel so alive.

Different colors,

All dancing in harmony,

Filled with such wonders,

All drawn very carefully.

It’s what makes me so unique,

It’s my only thought.

A painting to speak,

When my words cannot.

            This poem was written to describe my passion using personification such as making colors dance to using rhyme scheme of abab. I started off by describing how much art meant to me and what my thought process was during the making of art and I ended off with how art has affected my life.

Love

Grab on to love

For if love runs

The heart is a lonely star

Forsaken by the sun.

Grab on to love

For when love goes

The heart is a cavern

With sunlight that never shows.

            This poem was inspired by the poem Dreams by Langston Hughes. I decided to use personification to show that love is something that is almost alive. I also used metaphors to deepen the intensity of love and its meanings.

A Smile (A Shakespearean Sonnet)

She was quiet and so compassionate.

She could put a smile on anyone’s face.

She was always full of love and passion.

Always laughing with her and her best mates.

Months passed and she became a spinning top,

Holding a smile so bright and so warm,

Hiding a quiet and frightening sob.

Her eyes sent a plea narrowed and so firm.

And still no one seemed to pay attention.

She took her life with her and disappeared.

We never noticed her dark depression.

We never thought that her life was so hard.

She seemed very happy on the outside,

I should have asked her if she was alright.

            I decided that this sonnet should reflect an original sonnet by using the same rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet and use near rhyme to try and make the poem sound more mysterious. I used the metaphor, a spinning top, to try and make her seem like she was about to fall down any second just like a top normally would.

 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. 

Response

            “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” is something every person comes across at some point in their life, where they have to choose whether or not to take the path less traveled by or to take the path most traveled by. The poem, The Road Not Taken by, Robert Frost is a decision that’s been thought about to choose to be like everyone else or to be an individual and stand out. The decision is something that the speaker has to make.

            The poem became really meaningfully to me as soon as I was done reading it. The way it was written and the theme that it created related a lot to me and the decisions that I have made and will make. In the start of the poem, the very first stanza, the speaker is trying to choose a path and knows that he has to choose wisely or else it would be really hard to go back and start all over again. As many other people in their lives also have to make important decisions, to start all over after making a choice might not always be the easiest thing to do, I thought that that message that Frost incorporated was truly inspiring. In both stanzas two and three, the poet sets another theme by saying that it’s alright to choose each option and that whatever you choose; your life won’t be over. In the last stanza, the poet not only gives a concluding message saying that the path not traveled often made his life interesting and better, but he also shows the readers an important symbol of the road. The road is showed as the choices that you have in your life and I find that to be beautiful and inspiring.

            As soon as I began to read this poem, I knew that it would become my favorite poem because I noticed that I could relate to it so much. This poem made me think about how to be different and how to present myself to the world. It was one of the few poems that I enjoyed to analyze and understand. It ended up inspiring me to find myself at the crossroad; it made me think about which path I would take if I was the speaker. I think that like the speaker, taking the path less traveled by would be the better choice because it would give me a chance to become unique and my own person. I also really admired the way that the poem was written made it seem like there is a lot more to the world than following the footsteps of another poem. This inspired me so many times because the choice that the speaker makes is a lot like the choices that people make at some point in their lives.

            At the time I read this poem, I was going through high school selection and it made me really think about what path I was going to take. This poem encouraged me to choose choices that make me unique and my own person. This poem is the reason that I dare to be bold and daring, this poem is forever going to be one of my most favorite poems written.