‘Poetry as a Pathway to Critical Thinking’: An Essay by Leland James

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Poetry as a Pathway to Critical Thinking

—with a focus on metaphor and image

Poetry: “the right words in the best order.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Critical thinking: “conceptualizing, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, questioning, and exploring information, ideas, and expressions from multiple perspectives.”

by Leland James

First, on “metaphor,” Robert Frost said this: “[U]nless you are at home in the metaphor, unless you have had your proper poetical education in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere…. You are not safe in science; you are not safe in history.” Frost is talking about critical thinking. Let’s explore what is meant, by “poetical education in the metaphor.” A definition: a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison. “A sea of troubles.”

Imagine “dueling metaphors” in a critical thinking exercise in a high school history class, with a ground rule of civility: “Heal the nation’s wounds of division” (human body compared to the body politic) versus “Fight for human rights” (physical combat compared to political process). Take, for example, the Women’s Rights movement, thinking through by discussion the heal or fight metaphors. Context automatically comes into play, when and why is it time to fight or time to heal? Always one or the other? Absolute or nuanced? Why? Are metaphors time bound, some and some not? The door to civil debate, the marketplace of free speech and thought is opened. Infinite pairs of dueling metaphors are easily imagined to expand and deepen the exercise.

Now, let’s move up a level and look at an entire poem, primarily through the lens of metaphor. Frost’s well-known poem, “The Road Not Taken,” will serve well. It frames a perennial American metaphor about nonconformity (different roads compared to life choices). There are even Road-Not-Taken t-shirts for sale on the internet. In the poem, two roads diverge in a wood. The speaker says, “And sorry I could not travel both….” He must choose. At the end of the poem, after many years, the speaker looks back and concludes: “I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference.” The metaphoric meaning seems clear: choosing the nonconformist road/life proves beneficial in the long run.

But let us read the poem closely, and think critically. In the second stanza, when describing the nonconformist road/life taken, the speaker contradicts himself: “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.” Wanting wear and worn about the same?

In a “close reading” of the poem, one needs to pay attention to these contradictions early on, and also to the last stanza’s “context” (the speaker, now an old man). Additionally, consider, in the conclusion, the poem’s “tone” (a sigh), and to its “diction” (I after I, and ages and ages hence): “and I—I shall be telling this with a sigh/Somewhere ages and ages hence[.]” Hear the drone? Then, after a line-break and dramatic pause: “I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference.” Hurrah for the nonconformist road/life?

Or, Let’s think some more about the poems meaning. Is the old man the voice of wisdom or that of a pompous old man? In the latter reading, we are taken in for a moment by the old man, his voice of wisdom, but then, I think, thinking better: this poem is a little joke, a little laugh at ourselves. Are we, perhaps, just a little, like the pompous old man? A Road-Not-Taken t-shirt anyone? If we find ourselves tripped up, we will never read another Frost poem casually, and we’ve had a lesson in critical thinking. Metaphors are seductive, and they can be deceptive.

Yet, hold on, wait a minute, maybe the poem does endorse the overarching courage and ultimate benefit of nonconformity, the road not taken, the exception proving the rule. Yes, believe in the wisdom, but be careful, metaphors can be self-delusional. Frost, conducting a master class in critical thinking ? “[U]nless you are at home in the metaphor … you are not safe anywhere….”

Now, a look at image: “to describe vividly as to evoke a mental picture.” The poet, William Ernest Henley, in his famous poem “Invictus,” puts forth a powerful image: “I thank whatever gods may be/For my unconquerable soul…./I am the master of my fate:/ I am the captain of my soul.” See the brave captain at the wheel of a tall ship.

Compare Henley’s image to one from Percy Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias,” the poem picturing a statue of an Egyptian pharaoh, with his “wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,” the statue turning to dust in the desert sands, a quote etched into the pedestal of the statue, “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” See the crumbling statue in the desert.

Finally, consider these lines from John Bunyan’s “The Shepherd Boy”: “The Shepherd Boy Sings in the Valley of Humiliation…/He that is down needs fear no fall,/He that is low, no pride;/ He that is humble ever shall/Have God to be his guide.” See the Sheppard Boy singing.

In these three poems the images bump up against each other, and, as with metaphor, questions arise. Note the dictions and tones. The game of critical thought is afoot, egged on, as it were, by poetic images. Which in these poems is hubris, and in which dwells wisdom? Is Henley’s unconquered soul hubris, an Ozymandias in the making? Is Bunyan’s shepherd boy sentimental syrup detached from the hard, cold reality of the crumbling statue and brave captain? Which is the great poem based on your analysis? “Ozymandias” is the great poem I would put my money on. Cry “Havoc!” I’ve let slip the dogs of critical thought. But let’s have civil debate, and test our readings against one another in the market place of free speech and critical thought.

Poetry, with its brevity and precision, is a natural training ground, or whetstone, for critical thinking. All of its devices, in addition to the highly accessible metaphor and image, are consummate communicators and powerful persuaders, for good or ill—mood, tone, personification, diction, allusion, symbol, and so many more—and all, when diligently pursued engender, or sharpen, critical thought, food for the brain as well as the heart.

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Leland James is the author of six poetry collections and five children’s books in verse. He has published over 300 poems in venues worldwide, including The Lyric, Rattle, and London Magazine. He has received over a dozen international poetry awards, been featured in American Life in Poetry, Poetry Foundation, and was nominated for a Push Cart Prize. He also writes award-winning fiction. His novel, EnWorld, An Encapsulated Future, published by River Grove Books, was released on June 28, 2025. lelandjames.com