Metaphors In Poetry

Imagine two completely different experiences; they each describe the other in unique ways yet reach out to the audience as well. It envelops one and demonstrates the poetic way of thought, resulting in a flurry of philosophical ideas that consume and yet somehow create an understanding of it. “The Road Not Taken”, by Robert Frost, and “O Captain! My Captain”, by Walt Whitman, utilized metaphors, thought-provoking ideas, and a personalized, relatable style of poetry to illustrate their overall point. “The Road Not Taken” and “O Captain! My Captain!” made use of metaphors to bring out their underlying meaning in their poems. Robert Frost used a fork in the road as a metaphor about choosing paths, or coming to an important decision. By writing
about this particular subject matter, he illustrated an often overlooked point, which is that the art of decision-making is a difficult one to master, and requires time to comprehend its complexity yet simplicity. In the poem, he described peering down one path, as if to see the consequences, whether good or bad, and then looking down the other, desperately attempting to reach a decision. Whitman, on the other hand, harnessed a different metaphor for his poem, “O Captain!
My Captain!”; he emphasized the point of how the “fearful trip” described in the poem was finished, and how his beloved captain, a notable father figure and a sort of loved authority, was struck down (for reasons unknown), and lay dead on the deck of his ship. The former is an illustration
of how, during this time period (late 1800’s), the Civil War resulted in a Union victory, though a costly one at that, as the poet wrote, “the ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won”. The felled captain Whitman describes was a vivid description of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; this differs from “The Road Not Taken” in that it is used to illustrate a historical event, rather than an important decision, although in both instances, there was an underlying element of significance. Therefore, Robert Frost and Walt Whitman’s poems demonstrated specific points using colorful metaphors. Another aspect of poetry that Whitman and Frost deployed was the concept of thought-provoking philosophies that brought the poems to life.
As aforementioned, Robert Frost’s poem spoke to the reader of the importance of decision-making. However, he also wrote directly to the reader about how multiple decisions have the same outcome, and how others can lead to different futures. Later in the poem, Frost stated that he wished to take the other metaphorical path as well, even if it was just for another day. This is not unlike “O Captain! My Captain!” because this poem somewhat revolves around the outcomes of a decision, and this choice that Whitman described is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Nevertheless, there is a key difference between these two poems in terms of philosophical ideals; in “The Road Not Taken” Frost described how the two choices had virtually the same outcome. In Whitman’ poem, the decision that was made had great consequences that had a prominent upshot on the United States as a whole. Consequently, the thought-provoking ideas in “The Road Not Taken” and “O Captain! My Captain!” were a major piece in Frost and Whitman’s overall
message. In both of their poems, Robert Frost and Walt Whitman used a personalized way of revealing their underlying point, allowing their poems to become more relatable. Frost utilized the concept of a personal journey for his poem; he writes about the mental and emotional turmoil in the poem, but in such a way so that the reader can understand it and feel as though they were there. For example, he used the metaphor of “in leaves no step had trodden black” to illustrate the point that the path he took had not been walked on often, possibly hinting at the idea that it was the correct path to take (even though this choice had not been made quite often). This is on par with Walt Whitman’s poem, as he used current events in his time to make “O Captain! My Captain!” relatable to the reader. When one read the poem in the 1800’s, one would feel a wave of grief and a glimmer of joy when reading Whitman’s poem because it described Lincoln’s death, a sorrowful event in this time period. This is like “The Road Not Taken” because it describes a personal aspect of the poet’s life; it is a little piece of their mind put into words. However, “O Captain! My Captain!” differed from Frost’s poem because it thoroughly described Whitman’s personal experience, as opposed to the latter, which is about a personal journey. As a result, both of these writers made use of personalization and relatability to broadcast their point. Robert Frost and Walt Whitman’s poems are two completely unlike reads, yet harmonize on certain key points. Although each did not know it at the time, they had somewhat created two sequential halves of the same story; one centering on decisions, and the other poem focusing on the consequences of those same decisions. In effect, “The Road Not Taken” and “O Captain! My Captain!” demonstrated the use of powerful metaphors, thought-provoking ideas, and personalization to illustrate their underlying message.