Ethan Lang's blog

     While doing the poetry panel project for The Road Not Taken  by Robert Frost, there was one key issue for our group in analyzing our poem which was the actual interpretation of it. In the poem, the final stanza is often the most noticed compared to the rest. With it reading "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference", there was a common inference of the poem as a whole meaning that the speaker's life has benefited in a way by taking a less common path. Out of context this would be a reasonable assumption but when reading the previous stanzas it is clear that this is a total misinterpretation of the meaning of the overall poem. With all of the stanzas being taken in mind the actual meaning can be along the lines of the paths actually being equal with neither of them being less or more travelled. This whole thing has taught me two things in poetry. 1, when it comes to poems especially the shorter ones all lines are very important i...

      Going over my mentor poet Rudy Francisco and his work has been easier to digest then I initially thought it would. For one, the language in which he writes with in his poetry is not completely outdated and I can actually understand the words that come out of his mouth. But another thing is not having to read the poems by myself as he often does live poetry performances. I can get tired very easily reading so much poetry so being able to just listen to Francisco perform his own work has been very nice. It also helps that he is an outstanding performer. The enthusiasm and passion that he carries with all of his work does a great job of keeping his audience hooked. The firm tone he always keeps speaking in and his constant continuation barely pausing for breaths and audience reaction managed to completely catch my attention and never let it go. The amazing delivery Francisco constantly displays is definitely one of the reasons he is considered one of the bett...