Boxer in the Ring Poetry

The above commercial is about a guy who is constantly told that he will never amount to much and that he is not good enough yet he goes on and tries to defeat what other people are saying. The same is true about trying to do the right thing even in the face of adversity or when the easy way out looks like a better and easier option. Several poets wrote poems similar to the dialogue in the above commercial about having to deal with adversity in life and having to hang in there to try and overcome it.

In the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling, during the first stanza the poet makes it clear that people should be strong and accept responsibility for their own actions and to not blame other people. In the second stanza, the poem suggests that people should accept defeat as a lesson and not as a stopping point. The third stanza suggests that people should take risks in their life and not give up hope. The final stanza or the fourth stanza instructs people that once they reach success people must not trade a love of compassion for a love of money. It instructs that upon climbing the social ladder people should not become arrogant and let it go to their heads. They should stay humble. It also says to use your time wisely and remain virtuous.

The poem by Emily Dickinson is about how she declares that her life will not be lived in vain if she can use her life to help someone else. She wanted to prevent someone from having a broken heart either by a failed relationship, death, or something else. The second two lines of the poem reiterate the first, that if she can prevent someone else from experiencing pain or the hardships of life then her life will not be lived in vain. The robin in the poem represents someone who is struggling with the hardships of life and she helps the robin back to is nest and puts it on the right path. She basically declares in her poem that a life helping others is worth more than a life spent only serving one's self.

"The High Road

The high road is paved with a steep battle up hill.

To get to the top takes perseverance and will.

She is driving to a job interview and a man has road rage.

He screams obscenities at her and his horn honking does engage.

She sits calmly there with the intensity of the stress.

She just brushes it off with all of life's cruelty and mess.

He knows that war opposers do not give a soldier the credit he is due.

Yet, when he goes unacknowledged he honors the proud and the few.

His ex wife starts verbally attacking him even though they have kids together.

He never retaliates putting the kids first in due weather.

Everyone in the class is cheating except one kid who keeps his head on straight.

He works to get C's so he knows how to study before it is too late.

She is a female soldier on the battlefields of war.

Yet, she does not get the respect the men do even though she fought to the core.

The drug dealers make easy money fast.

Yet, for one boy he wouldn't settle for something that won't last.

He works hard at school and his job.

So from his integrity, character, and ethics the world can not rob.

It is hard to take the high road.

Yet, at the top there are values stored that time will not erode."----- Megan Fricke

The poet Megan Fricke claims in her poem "The High Road" that there are instances and places in life where it is difficult to do the right thing and people do it anyway because by doing so they reap far more benefits in the long run than had they taken the easy way out and did something that was not moral or wrong. It is basically saying that by character formation and perseverance comes a better outcome and pay off than cutting corners and doing things that are only self serving. Several examples in real life are given even though it is difficult in every circumstance for the person to try and do the right thing, especially when other people are not.

The way that all three poems are similar is the fact that all three are giving instructions on doing the right thing or to keep on trying even in the face of adversity. "If" by Rudyard Kipling is more of declaring what people should do while the poem by Emily Dickinson only talks about how the author will make her own life not one that is vain or unworthy. The poem by Megan Fricke who is a modern poet gives examples of different people in different situations each faced with adversity and trying to overcome it. While the three poems are connected by sharing the same theme, they are all three written and expressed in different ways.