Listen to your feet

Write a response, which is based on the same aspect of journey – choices. You might choose a narrative, a journal, a letter etc. Create a character or characters and a situation, which will allow you to present a point of view about the way choices, affect our journeys. Aim to use some specific language devices.

Dear Mother,

It has been a while since I last wrote to you. I have been very busy with my exams. I’ve been here for more than six months now, and I still don't feel at home. The other girls are different. Different because they don't like the same things I do, stay out late and party all night to complain the next day because they forgot to complete necessary work for the subjects.

Walking around the grounds, I have found the perfect spot. It’s up in a tree. I am able to see the white-capped mountains and feel perfectly at home. Sometimes, I don't even take work up there; I just sit there and listen to the sounds. I am able to have a few private moments, before I am transported back into my mundane existence.

I have to choose which subjects I wish to continue on with. I’m not sure what I am to choose. My teachers have told me I can do well in any I choose. My head wants me to go one way – the easy and more successful way. My feet want to follow the path less taken – the one where I will feel more at home.

I try to get along with my dorm-mates, but it is extremely difficult for me. They are always talking about things I don't particularly need or want to have any part in. It’s always about the next party, or the new dress and down to the last pair of shoes.

I go to as many concerts as I can afford. I feel more at home. Where the sounds of the violin sweep me over the top of the mountains and the mellow brass take me to the deepest, darkest depths of the sea. When the concert is over. I feel like crying. Crying because there are only a few places in the world where I can be myself, act myself and speak my mind.

I stopped writing last week because I didn't know what else to tell you. I still don't get along with my dorm mates. Even though I know their names, they still don't know I exist. I reckon they will know I am here, and working hard, when tests come around and they need someone to help.

I will help the mother. I believe they are lost. Lost in the darkest cave at the bottom of the ocean, with no one to turn to. I will be like their guiding light outside into the real world. Where people have personalities, because personalities bring the roller coasters of life.

If they stop to listen to music and sit in the tree with me, perhaps they will understand why I love to look at the mountains. To wonder about the world beyond our own and choose where your feet take you.

Your feet are never wrong because they know where you want to go in your heart. They know your deepest desires about the choices you wish to take but choose not to listen to. Perhaps there is someone here who will sit with me and listen to his or her feet, because the feet know the road not taken.

Love,

Lorraine

The New, the DIfferent and The Unfamiliar - The Arrival

1.     First impression of the new world

– The birds

2.     Everything is different and new

-       The way the people conduct themselves

-       The signs, animals, what appears to be the barbers, the musical instruments

3.     Not understanding the language and asking for directions

4.     Common household objects in his new room seem foreign and even alien to him – especially the pet

5.     The culture and food

-       Receives help from a by-stander

§  The by-stander and his son

§  Willing to help the new comer

§  Learning about the symbols on the wall to know which fruit is which

-       Learns about the new food and how to obtain it

§  Which food is best to eat for yourself and for others

6.     The animal gives the man a fright because it reminds him of home and how insecure he felt when he lived there

7.     Introduced to the wife of the by-stander and the main character is welcomed into the home

-       Learns how to cook the new food

-       The culture is different

§  The use of food in meals

§  Seating at the table

§  Instruments

8.     Trying to find a new job to provide for the family

-       Asking around but nobody needs any help

-       The poster man gives in to helping put up the posters

§  The character fails because he cannot read the signs and pastes the poster upside down

9.     The daughter has now lived in the new world long enough to be able to walk around by herself and give directions to the new girl on her own special journey

Question 7 revised

7.   What aspects of the journey are being emphasised?

The poem emphasises two aspects of the journey: unusual journey and an unseen journey. In the first stanza, the private journey begins with nobody being around to see Frost “stop to watch his woods fill up with snow”. Frost then explains in stanza two that this is his time because the “horse must think it queer to stop without the farmhouse near.” The journey is unusual because there is nobody around, like the bourse would think. Frost has time to pause in the woods and not have to worry about what others will think of him. Stanza three continues on from stanza two, about the horse wondering why Frost has decided to stop here, when there is nobody to talk to. The snow is not heavy because “of easy wind and downy flake”. The final stanza includes the unusual journey as Frost describes the woods as “lovely, dark and deep”. The solitude journey comes to an end because Frost “have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep”. 

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening Questions

1.   List all the things that Frost sees. Rank them in the order that you would find them attractive.

-       The woods and frozen lake

-       Woods fill up with snow

-       Harness bells a shake

-       Sounds the sweep of easy wind and downy flake

-       The woods are lovely, dark and deep

-       His house is in the village

2.   What are the images and ideas that Frost reflects upon when he has stopped?

The imagery of beauty and the promises he has made to another are reflected upon when Frosts stops.

3.   Imagine that you are Frost. Write what you would say to your wife when you returned home from your journey.

I stopped by the woods, on the snowy evening. The beauty of serenity and desire for adventure found in those woods are irreplaceable. I sat there, just listening to my thoughts of life and adventure.

4.   Is there a deeper meaning to the poem? What do you think it is?

The poem describes the inner meaning of love for the little things that many people overlook because of their busy lives.

5.   Comment on the use of three poetic devices in the poem. (Especially the use of rhyming and repetition in the last line).

The repetition enhances the meaning of the poem, but the last two lines should be read differently. The rhyming of the first, second and fourth and lines of each stanza create a flowing effect. The use of rhyming and repetition enhance the meaning of the poem.

6.   The poem draws attention to two conflicting desires: the desire to be alone and to explore mysterious, challenging or even dangerous places, thoughts or objects, and the desire to a sociable person who responds to the company of others. Trace these ideas through the poem.

The idea of being social is presented in the second and fourth verses. The idea of stopping at a farmhouse and continuing through the night to visit another provides connection between the reader and the author.

The desire to be alone is underlying each stanza. The thoughts of being alone to listen to your thoughts and to have time to yourself to do things you want to do.

The desire to explore the woods is one, which is presented throughout the entire poem. In the first stanza, Frost is thinking of others, before the realization nobody will be able to see him. The third stanza repeats the first stanza, but includes the horse. The horse hasn’t done anything; it is just Frost’s imagination about what the horse would be thinking.

7.   What aspects of the journey are being emphasised?

The poem emphasises two aspects of the journey: adventure of the different environment where the woods are dark, deep and mysterious; the isolation of the woods, a place where personal reflection and being alone is easily accessible.

8.   Explain why this poem does or does not appeal to you. Justify your answer with quotes from the poem.

This poem appeals to me because sometimes, I do not want to talk to anybody. They seem to annoying or too protective of me when I talk to them. I prefer to sit alone and read a good book.

The sometimes-needed socialism is presented in the poem to appeal to everybody who has that special someone to talk to or even strangers to have a drink with.