On
the road
The
rag is the squirrel. Grey screamer at magpies,
Tree-flyer,
tail-snapper, he’s gone.
His
airy bounds met the final car
He
could have stepped safely, lived long,
But
he left the soft air for the dangerous earth,
I do not say he was wrong
1.
Paraphrase Of The Poem
The title of this poem is “On the road”, it
describes the way of life symbol. The
author tries to give and describe that as human must have their own goals to
get a better life. The reason for the title “On the road” is a
reflection of how we live in which we must face the problem. Generally In the
road it is usually found many problems and we can’t deny it, for instance:
traffic jam, pollution, and criminal, those all can be symbol of the obstacle
in real life as reflected in this poetry. A squirrel has a unique
characteristic when this animal wants to find his food; he jumps from one tree
to other tree.
The rag is the squirrel, grey screamer at magpies, (line
1) in this line, it can be seen that squirrel has been dead and the body
becomes slim as like the rag which is not valuable. It is like the body of
human when he has dead, his body is not useful anymore. It is just for worm’s
food.
Tree-flyer, tail snapper, he’s gone. (Line
2)This line describes the characteristics of squirrel that likes to jump from
one tree to other trees as the way of finding the food, and he likes to play
his tail as the proud thing he has. As human we have two basic principles; willingness
and proud thing. They all can derive us to make effort.
His airy bounds met the final car (Line 3) this
line explains the cause of squirrel’s death, his death because of having been
hit by a car so the body is not like the body of squirrel but it is like the
rag. And every choice has consequence. So we must realize it.
He could have stepped safely, lived long, (line
4) it seems as the regret sentence, as the squirrel’s characters that is clever
in jumping from one tree to another tree, unfortunately he falls when he tries
to jump safely from one tree to another tree and for his skill he could have
lived longer. It is almost same with people experienced that we are sometimes
in up and down.
But he left
the soft air for the dangerous earth, (line 5) it represents that after
falling down and hit by a car he breaths for the last time, it is only for
looking for the food to live longer or survive. People ever say that they will
never stop before reaching what they dream.
I do not say he was wrong. (Line 6) this line
is the act of caring for squirrel from author. It means that what the squirrel
did is not the wrong choice because everything chosen has consequence.
From the whole paraphrases above, we can conclude that
to survive and to reach what we dream need sacrifice even our soul.
2.
Comparison of Symbol of the Poem
In the poem
entitled on the road, the author used some words as the symbol. Such as:
·
On the road. The author tries to describe
that on the road is the way of life, which is full of problems, for example:
traffic jam, pollution, crime, and accident as squirrel experienced.
·
The rag, it is the symbol of usefulness
thing which is rumpled, after being used it is thrown.
·
Squirrel is used by the author as symbol
of human who is never satisfied with the condition as he has. He always goes
from one place to another place to reach what he dream.
3.
Uncommon Grammar
To understand easier the poem, we try to rearrange the uncommon grammatical
·
The rag is the squirrel à
the squirrel is like the rag.
·
Grey screamer at magpies àhe
is grey screamer at magpies.
·
Tree-flyer, tail snapper,à
he is tree-flyer, he is tail snapper.
·
Lived long àhe could have lived
long.
The author uses
middle rhyme to make the poem be more beautiful and enjoyable: Tree-flyer,
tail-snapper, met, stepped.
4.
Theme
The theme of this poem is that reaching dream and to survive
need sacrifice. The author wants to describe that human is as like as a
squirrel in searching food or to survive through going from one place to
another place to get a better life, it is almost the same what a squirrel did,
when he wants to search the food he always jumps from one tree to another tree
and unluckily he falls down and be hit by the car, it can be seen in the line
2-3,
Tree-flyer, tail-snapper, he’s gone.
His airy bounds met the final car
From the quotation above we can conclude that he is
not afraid to have the dangerous risk in searching the food to survive, even
losing his soul, it is as represented in
line 5 But he left the soft air for the dangerous earth. But what squirrel
chose cannot be blamed because what he did is to survive. And it is supported
by the author statement that I do not say he was wrong. Line 6.
In short, if people want to reach what they dream and
to get a better life he should not stay at home, but he should be out of house
to search a better life whatever the risk.
