Dover Beach vs The Road Not Taken Compare and Contrast

In the two poems, Dover Beach and The Road Not Taken, there are many topics they have in common, and there are a lot of differences that make the stories unique. Both of these poems are very informative and share a lot of similarities with each other. The authors portrayed a message that allows these poems to have a better meaning than what people would think it would be. In the poem, Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold wrote about himself on his honeymoon, while on the vacation, he realizes that humans are losing faith, and in the other poem, The Road Not Taken author, Robert Frost writes about decision making, which is a dominant part of both of these poems. The poems Dover Beach and The Road Not Taken share the theme of decision and care for life. 

The two poems, Dover Beach and The Road Not Taken are similar in many ways. One example of this is the theme of decision making, this theme was significant to both stories because it was about humans deciding, but they put this theme in different ways. Another example that the poems share is the use of literary devices, one of the literary devices included in both of these poems are alliterative. Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter in a sentence. In the poem, The Road Not Taken stanza two provides, “was grassy and wanted wear” (Frost 8). The repetition of the letter w makes this line stand out and, it means in the story that this path looked a lot more different from the road that people have taken. In the other poem by Matthew Arnold, “To lie before us like a land of dreams” (Arnold 31). This quotation helps us know that he uses alliteration because he repeats the letter "L” throughout that sentence. Another example of a literary device used in these poems is imagery. Both of the authors made this idea very easy to see when the reader is reading their poems. In The Road Not Taken, the quotation,  “Took the one less traveled by” (Frost 19), allows the reader to illustrate in their minds that the person who they are reading about decided to take the road that most people do not travel and this made a difference. In the poem Dover Beach, involved, “The sea is calm tonight...The Tide is full, the moon lies fair” (Arnold 2). The author uses this because this helps the reader imagine where he is writing. It also helps set the mood of the story for the reader. 

In spite of the fact that the two poems had similar text they also had contrasting information as well. Both of the poems had a lot of information, but some of the events did not match. The language and writing that they are both written in also separates them. One of the most important ways that they are separated is by their themes. In a way, you can understand how the main points are connected, and in more ways, you can see they are different. The main idea of the road not taken is about a person who makes a crucial choice, while the other story is about losing faith in the world. The road not taken represents the theme of the decision in a gentile way. Dover Beach was about the choice of good or bad, and he showed this when he used the sentence, “Of human misery” (Arnold 18). That line represented sadness, and for instance, he used “misery" to describe the humans in the world. Even with their similar nature, they also have differences that make the two poems distinctive. 

The two poems are meaningful, and they both leave messages for the reader to take with them after reading. They both share the main points of decision shown through choosing a path and having the option of being evil or good. The poems both shared that human life is extraordinary, and this is confirmed through The Road Not Taken by picking the right path can be all the difference and in Dover Beach by saying that people are losing faith.  Humanity and decision-making are essential, nevertheless in a world where every decision counts, whether it is for voting purposes or a small event. That event can amount to something greater. This includes voting, which gives you the decision to choose who controls your country for a few years. The poems talk about how important the world is and what humans need to do to keep everything neat. The process the authors used to write these poems is remarkable and important because it adds definition to what they wrote.