My Chosen Poem

The Road Less Traveled

by Kit McCallum

How often we must bear the challenges of life; The endless roller coaster between happiness and sorrow; The constant ups and downs of daily strife. And always the question remains .... why? Life is not an easy road for most; It twists and turns with many forks in the road, Although always, and inevitably, we are given a choice ... Do we turn to the right ... or the left? Do we take the high road ... or the low road? Do we take the easy path ... or the difficult one? Decisions are not easy for those struggling for direction ... And sometimes the many choices and signs become overwhelming. While standing at a crossroads in life, The urge is to take the most comfortable path; The road with least resistance ... The shortest or most traveled route. And yet, if we've been down that comfortable road before; Have gleaned its lessons in life, and learned from our experiences; Do we yet again follow the known? Or does our destiny lie in another direction? The fear of the road less traveled is tangible and all too real; It manifests itself in many ways, And tends to cloud the issues that might otherwise be clear. It is in these times of confusion, That we must seek peace and solitude; Time to contemplate on our life, Our experiences and our choices past; Time to look back, and reflect on what we have learned Without fear or confusion. For only each of us knows our own personal thoughts; Our unique past and personal history; The experiences that brought us to the crossroads we now face. We can always learn a small degree from others experiences, And yet ... no one person can walk in our shoes, Others know not, the trials and tribulations faced in private ... For each is individual ... unique ... and personal. And that is why ... while standing at a crossroads, Only "we" can formulate the decision for ourselves; The true direction that lies within; The choices we must deliberate on with clarity and wisdom. For it is only through personal reflection, That we can now choose our destiny; ... Our next adventure; ... And the future we will embrace.

Identify the metaphor and the relationship between the two things being compared- What do they have in common? How can we understand one in terms of the other?

This Poem uses 2 main different (but similar) metaphors that describe life;

(1) Life is a Rollercoaster

This metaphor can be deduced from the first Stanza where is quotes, “The endless roller coaster between happiness and sorrow/ The constant ups and downs of daily strife.” A roller coaster goes up and down, similarly to life where sometimes we feel sad (down) and sometimes we feel happy (up).

(2) Life is a Road

This poem brilliantly described the many possible comparison of life to a road. The author describes life as different roads to take,

For example, in Stanza 3 it quotes “Do we turn to the right ... or the left?” In other words should we take the right road or the left road? This describes the right decisions you make in you life as the right road and the wrong decisions as the left road.

Another Example is when he explains taking the high road or the low road. This describes how sometime in life we forgive people or make the wise decisions as taking the “higher road” and the “low road” describes the bad decisions or the immature actions we do.

Finally this poem talks about taking the easy path or the hard path, to explain the concept of taking life easy and getting the easy way out rather than challenging yourself and talking the difficult path.

3) What cultural significance does this metaphor have?

The metaphors used in this poem are very popular and probably common in many cultures. I often see life described as a road or journey in many different countries. Even in Arabic we use the exact same meaning of the metaphors. I feel that these types of metaphors are mostly used because they are the most effective and beautiful way to describe life and the different paths one can take.