Poetry+Comparison

**Out of Habit ** They discuss things in the car driving  nowhere up and down the streets so that if one of them screams or weeps the kids won’t be disturbed. The kids are at home watching a Disney flick in the family room.

 She is not sure how much she will tell him whether to mention the other man or maybe just the job having to keep her away.

 He sits too erect, arms stiff, hands tight. Tonight is different in a way he doesn’t know What has happened? What is going on? Everything he says begins with but. It’s raining. He can’t find the wiper switch..

 She wishes she’d brought some cigarettes. Now that she has started she has to finish the job. Somewhere in this purse there are cigarettes. His rational spiel is almost over. She breathes deeply. mumbles that she doesn’t want to be married. She has no reasons. Just that. There is no traffic, no one on the sidewalks. She looks at house lights through wet glass. How many of them, she wonders, how many.

 He pulls into a closed service station. Trying to expel the pain, coughing, crying, he doubles over, slams himself against the door,

 She lights a cigarette and takes a slow drag. He looks like one of those black and white films, the old ones where nothing much happens.

 He gets out, walks a while in the cool rain, over and over slamming wet fist into wet palm.

 Her breath mists the windows. He gets in, turns on the defogger, the headlights, the wipers. Out of habit, the car returns them to the house.

 **The Road Not Taken** Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,

 And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back.

 I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

 The two poems //The Road Not Taken// and //Out of Habit// are very similar in many ways. Both of the plots in each of these poems revolve around making a life altering decision. Because of this, s ymbols play a very important role in both of these poems. In the poem //The Road Not Taken// the road that diverges in a yellow wood at the beginning symbolizes a choice, or a decision that the main character must face in their life. This character has to choose one path to travel down on, or one way in which to orient their life. In //Out of Habit// the rain falling down blocking the man's vision on the road symbolizes his thoughts becoming blurred by his conscience. Both of these symbols relate to both poems in some way. The characters in //Out of Habit// have to make a life-altering decision just like the character in //The Road Not Taken//, and in //The Road Not Taken// the person's conscience is also blocking them from making their choice as in //Out of Habit//. These choices make these poems both so similar.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There is one main difference however in these two poems. In the end, everyone has to make a decision. In //Out of Habit// the characters resort back to their normal lives. They chose the easier path so they could keep their family together, and children happy. Just as the title, the characters go back home out of habit. In //The Road Not Taken// the character does the exact opposite. They take the road that has been less traveled, which means not the obvious choice. Instead of doing what everyone else did, this character decided to take a risk and do something different.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> The last lines in both of these poems are very important to their meaning. In //The Road Not Taken// it says, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by, a nd that has made all the difference. ” which means that because this person chose the less-common path it has changed their life in an amazing way. //Out of Habit// says, “Her breath mists the windows. He gets in, turns on the defogger, the headlights, the wipers. Out of habit, the car returns them to the house. ” meaning that the characters have returned to the same way as before, and will probably be unhappy unlike //The Road Not Taken//. These poems both started out similar, and ended up being very different. Both poems though, have a very special message. The main message in these poems is that sometimes you should not follow the crowd and do what is easiest, but take a risk and do what is better in the long run.