Fiction Adaptation - Analysis Of Source Material
Analysis Of Source Material
Poet
I decided to choose the poem 'The Road Not Taken', after reading all the poems available to us multiple times, this was the one that resonated with me the most, I felt the most from this poem and therefore chose it to ensure I was passionate about the film I needed to make.
I have been in situations before in which I have had to chose a path out of two options, some roads harder then other. When I decided to come back to University at 22 and quit a well paid job to pursue the career I wanted, I chose between the ease of the Job I already had but didn't enjoy or to choose a more difficult and challenging path for a more rewarding career and happiness. This is why I resonated with the poem of the bat.
Within this blog post I will be analyzing the poem and researching around the poet. This will then, help push me into the next stage which will be evolving the poem into my short film, brainstorming ideas and all the aspects that come with creating the video.
Firstly, I wanted to understand the history behind the poet, Robert Frost, so I started by researching him.
Robert Frost was born in the United States on March 26th, 1874. According to research 'Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England, in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. (Wikapedia, 2020).
It was in high school that Frost became interested in poetry and according to research Frost attended 'Harvard University in Boston, though he never earned a formal college degree' (Poets.Org, 2020).
Robert Frost actually had a few different occupations before becoming a known poet, he was a teacher, cobbler and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. In 1894 his first ever poem was published within the Independent, which was a New York Newspaper.
After moving to England with this wife in 1912, this is when he began to become inspired by English writers and English poetry. He then befriended 'Ezra Pound, who helped to promote and publish his work'.
Robert Frost actually won awards for his poetry, including 'four Pulitzer Prizes'. He was also presented the Congressional Gold Medal in 1962. Within the poets.org website which has information about Robert Frost's life and achievements, it actually explains that although Frost had traditional verse forms within his poetry writing, his writing was almost often dark and full of ambiguity and irony.
Thoughts
I found this aspect of the research really interesting as it was good to get an insight into Frost's life and the writer behind the poem I will be adapting into my own. By doing this research, it has allowed me to understand that Frost was an ironic writer who wrote about the complexity of social interactions and life itself. This has already given me an idea in relation to the road I will be going down to adapt my chosen poem, I want to ensure I follow the same theme of showing complexity of life and hard decisions that can impact people lives and stories. This fits greatly with the poem which seems to be about two different paths in someone's life.
To ensure I understand the poem in its entirety, I will next be researching the poem and its meanings.
Please see my chosen poem below.
'The Road Not Taken' from first read, indicates to me that it is a poem about making a life choice. 'If life is a journey, this poem highlights those times in life when a decision has to be made.' (Spacey, 2020)
According to Owlcation, the poem was actually written by Frost to make fun of his friend Edward Thomas, who would often speak about how he regretted taking a certain path, one that maybe had less opportunities.
Spacey goes on to say that 'The reader is left to make up their own mind about the emotional state of the speaker at the end. Was the choice of the road less travelled a positive one?'. I think this leads great for adaptation of this piece, it allows me to take what I can from the poem and really analyze it for myself, along with the actual intention of the poem, which we can see from Frosts characteristics and opinion from his own life.
Main Theme
It seems that the main theme of 'The Road Not Taken' is about how actually you cant foresee what the future holds in either path you're willing to take but you're most likely to be presented with choices in life and paths in which you have to choose one or the other. As I mentioned above in regards to my own situation, I chose the harder and more life unsettling route of trying something new and going back to university, however, I could of continued to work in finance and been unhappy.
Although within the poem and as mentioned by Spacey above, that the poem itself doesn't actually dictate if the speaker made the right choice in life or not, it does indicate he made a choice. You can see that there is a turning point within the poem in which the speaker is then able to make his decision.
Throughout the poem there is symbolic references, 'Road' indicating the journey of life and two paths in woodland, indicating two different roads and choices. On researching symbolism within the poem, Spacey also points out that 'Yellow can be considered a middle colour, something in between and unsure of itself'. I think this is something really important to have researched, as I want to ensure I have similar styles and traits throughout my short film that are my own adaptation. The representation of words and colour with intentional underlining meanings is something that is also normally used within film and is transferable that can build tensions and 'Show, not tell' the story.
This is something I'm really excited to pursue within my idea, to use symbolism within my own short film which has also stemmed from the symbolism that Frost uses within his poetry.
I have learnt from my research surrounding the poem and analysis that although Frosts poem shows the speaker having to chose between to paths, the poem doesn't actually indicate if the speaker choses the correct choice, nor, is it a happy poem with a positive ending, as it is up to you as the reader to decide.
The message within my research shows that the poem is presented to you in a light that resembles a lot of choices you probably have to go through in life and that there is most likely, to be many occasions in life in which you have to make a hard choice that will impact your life. I'm really excited to be able to take the knowledge and analysis of the poem now into the idea development stage, so that I can start working on my adaptation.
Bibliography
Poets.Org. (2020) Robert Frost (Online) At: https://poets.org/poet/robert-frost [Accessed on 15/12/2020]
Spacey, A. (2020) Analysis of Poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost (Online) At: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Road-Not-Taken-by-Robert-Frost [Accessed on 15/12/2020]
Wikapedia. (2020) Robert Frost (Online) At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost#Work [Accessed on 15/12/2020]
List Of Illustrations
Fig 1. Owlcation (2020) Portrait of Robert Frost [Portrait] At: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Road-Not-Taken-by-Robert-Frost [Accessed on 15/12/2020]
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