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Forums / Poetry and Inspiration Discussion /
Deconstructing Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken


  • atena63
    Oct 31 6:31 AM
    Reply
    Hi there.
    Would you please tell me how to deconstruct Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"?
    Thnx.

  • hendiadys
    October 31 ↑
    Reply
    Does this mean you want an assignment/homework done for you?

  • Judith Chandler
    October 31 ↑
    Reply
    How about just reading it and enjoying it? Deconstruction will take the juice right out of it. In my opinion.

    • S A Adelmann
      October 31 ↑
      Reply
      Which is, I think, the goal of most literature classes. It's a pity.

    • Cynewulf
      October 31 ↑
      Reply
      I think that often studying a poem (or a novel) & understanding a bit about why it was written, what it is actually about & taking into account its cultural & historical milieu can improve your enjoyment of it. Sometimes...

      As for deconstruction, I think we all do that to anything we read, to a point. Half the fun of poetry is our own interpretation of it!

      • arafura
        October 31 ↑
        Reply
        I don't mind them pulling it apart as long as they put it back together properly!

      • cc
        November 28 ↑
        Reply
        Exactly! One writer I enjoy and many do not is E.E.Cummings as he often wrote without punctuation - which makes the reader examine the words and we all know that in such a case every person reads the sentances differently. You can come up with several different meanings to one sentance or verse.

  • atena63
    November 1 ↑
    Reply
    i just want to know how I should apply deconstruction in this poem.
    which factors should I observe?

  • hendiadys
    November 1 ↑
    Reply
    What's "deconstruction"?

    • Cynewulf
      November 1 ↑
      Reply
      Read some Derrida. (He was a *French bloke)


      *Well...French-Algerian.

  • patrick20traveler
    November 1 ↑
    Reply
    Read "On Deconstruction" by Jonathan Culler, then run, do not walk, to the nearest exit. If you are taking a humanities course in an institution of higher learning you are in great intellectual danger. Faculty isolation and inbreeding have produced cognative mutations for which there are no known treatments. Save yourself before it is too late!

    • just mercedes
      November 1 ↑
      Reply

    • DeeCrepit
      November 2 ↑
      Reply
      I concur.
      When ignorance judges, if it assumes a superior view of another's writing, much is lost. (refer to Judith's context.)
      When academics do, they may assume that is all there is, missing other realities that made it live.
      It is a moot situation prone to error.

      • arafura
        November 2 ↑
        Reply
        We (or THEY) are always just humans judging humans. We are programmed for failure before we start.

        • DeeCrepit
          November 2 ↑
          Reply

          We are programmed for failure before we start,

          --and can become painfully arrogant if not aware.

          • arafura
            November 2 ↑
            Reply
            Indeed.

            Or go the other way and become too reticent to have an opinion at all.

            • DeeCrepit
              November 2 ↑
              Reply
              Reticence bows to bullies.
              There is a lot of courage in documented convictions,
              and usually a silent crowd will encircle.

          • Judith Chandler
            November 4 ↑
            Reply
            These days, I seem to veer between humility and arrogance. The things I come out with! Too much of either is not a good thing.

        • Matt Holck
          November 3 ↑
          Reply
          I heard
          they've isolated the pituitary gland as a major player in aging

  • Judith Chandler
    November 2 ↑
    Reply
    I do agree it's interesting and useful to study the historical background and the poet's biographical details. It's good to have a context for the poem and I have to admit my literary studies happened mostly before Post Modernism. Perhaps I need to take some kind of update via Google. You have made the Culler book sound intriguing.

  • ea
    November 7 ↑
    Reply
    Something there is that doesn't love a wall.

  • Judith Chandler
    November 8 ↑
    Reply
    that wants it down.
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