Poems About Change

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost "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 kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads onto 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 Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot "I am the man. I suffered, I was there.

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid.

Do I dare disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse."

"The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot "I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

The world is an empty place, The mountains crumble to the sea, There's no use in trying.

So what is it that we're trying to save? This desert of the real?"

"The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats "Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity."

"The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot "We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar"