Comparative Study of Robert Frost's
Two Famous Poems
Abstract: Frost's poems take the rural lives and natural scenery of the New England area as backgrounds, fresh and natural; take the spoken language there as means of expression, easy to be understood; while the sophisticated philosophies under those plain words are enlightening. The representative works of this kind are The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. This thesis takes “dramatic monologue” as frame-work and theory of “sentence sounds” as researching means in analyzing these two poems to discover their samenesses and differences in terms of background, language and character image. It aims to analyze the causes of the samenesses and differences from the poet's life-experiences to reach the conclusion that his life-experiences influence his poetic writing.
Key Words: Robert Frost; dramatic monologue; sentence sounds; life-experiences
弗罗斯特两首名诗对比分析
摘 要：弗罗斯特的诗歌以新英格兰地区的田园生活和自然风光为背景，清新自然；以新英格兰口语为表达方式，通俗易懂；而浅显的文字下深邃的哲理又发人深省。这类诗歌的代表作当属《未选择的路》和《雪夜林边驻足》。本文将以“戏剧独白”为框架，以“句子—声音理论”为研究方法，对比分析这两首诗歌，得出它们在情景、语言、人物形象三方面的异同点。最后客观地从诗人的生活经历着手对异同点做出解释，从而得出诗人的生活经历影响诗歌创作的结论。
关键词：罗伯特·弗罗斯特；戏剧独白；句子—声音理论；生活经历
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1. Robert Frost's Life-experiences and His Two Poems 2
1.1 Robert Frost's Life-experiences 2
1.2 The Background of These Two Poems 5
1.2.1 The Background of The Road Not Taken 5
1.2.2 The Background of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 6
2. Samenesses of These Two Poems 7
2.1 Background: The Nature 7
2.2 Language: Oral Language of New England 8
2.3 Character Image: A Traveler 9
3. Differences Between These Two Poems 10
3.1 Background: Encountering Divergence VS. Stopping By Woods 10
3.2 Language: Traditional Iambic Poem VS. Rondeau 11
3.3 Character Image: Positive Traveler VS. Burden-bearing Traveler 12
4. Causes for Samenesses and Differences 12
4.1 Causes for Samenesses 13
4.1.1 Living Environment 13
4.1.2 Wordsworth's Poetic Language 13
4.1.3 The Hardship of Life 14
4.2 Causes for Differences 15
4.2.1 Different Themes 15
4.2.2 Stable Life is Precondition 15
4.2.3 Emerson's Optimism 16
5. Conclusion 16
Bibliography 18
