Robert Frost Poems: Optimistic or Pessimistic?

Out of the group of Robert Frost poems that we were assigned to read in class my favorite one was "The Road Not Taken". I read this poem some time in high school and I've always liked it. I've always thought of it as a happy poem about a man who resists conformity by taking a path less traveled. I always thought the poem was saying "be your own person" or " don't follow the crowd". But after the discussion we had in class I began to think of the poem in a new way. What if taking a path less traveled isn't a good thing? Why inflict unnecessary trouble on yourself by taking a messy untraveled path? When I started to think about the poem this way I also thought about the other Robert Frost poems we were assigned to read. In each Frost poem the speaker had some sort of decision to make. And each speaker seemed to have a sense of regret for the decisions he made.

In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" the speaker is wandering through the woods on his horse when he decides he wants to stop. When the speaker says "My little horse must think it queer/ To stop without a farmhouse near" he second guesses his decision to stop in the woods because of what the horse might think. At the end of the poem the horse shakes its bells "To ask if there is some mistake". The speaker feels remorseful for his decision to stop in the woods because the horse knows it is wrong and the speaker knows it too.

Reflecting on the Research Process

For my position paper I chose to write about the relationship between creativity and mental illnesses. I had to find materials that supported a link between creativity and mental illnesses and I also researched artists that suffered from mental illnesses. When doing research for this assignment I used the library here at hcc for the first time. In the past most of my research has been done online and this is the first assignment that I actually had to go into the library and find books and journals relating to my topic. I chose to write about a topic that I was interested in because I knew it would help me write 8 pages, and I enjoyed the research process more.
By writing this research paper I learned how to make a stronger, more convincing argument in my writing. I learned how to address people who disagree with my argument and use that to my advantage by rebutting them. Also, I have never written a paper this long so I learned how to write in detail and organize my thoughts. This paper was different than any other paper I had to write, I usually know exactly how to organize my papers. With this paper I was having trouble figuring out when to say each point and how to integrate quotes that I found.

Writing this paper has already helped me in my future papers. While writing this paper I was also working on a research paper for another class. I used what we learned in class to make my other paper stronger.