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The road not taken poetry analysis paragraph
ANALYSE THE POEM OF rOBERT fROST
The road not taken poetry analysis paragraph
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The Road Not Taken: Poetry Explication Decisions are an everyday part of life. Although many decisions made throughout the day may not be crucial to our path of life, most every decision will affect life in some way. Pop tart or bagel, milk or orange juice, as well as drive or take the bus are all choices people make to begin their day, but Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is a perfect example of a life altering decision. Frost wrote this poem when his dear friend, Edward Thomas, was stuck between staying with Frost and becoming a poet, or going to war against Germany in World War I. “Two Roads”, later changed to “The Road Not Taken”, angered Thomas, and caused him to enlist in the war, only to be killed in action two months later at Arras on Easter Day. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost has a literal meaning from the speaker, or traveler, of the road he did not take, but the deeper meaning certainly shows how decisions alter your life. Notably, sorrow and regret is the tone of this poem, demonstrated in the very first stanza: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one The speaker says he is “sorry I could not travel both”, meaning that he feels sorrowful about not being able to take both roads. This stanza has a much deeper meaning, more than just not being able to take a path. Although the speaker travels into a yellow wood, the paths represent a very important decision the traveler must make. This is an example of a metaphor where the traveler compares the decision to two paths in a wood. He observes the first choice, said as looking down as far as he could in line four, and tries to see where it will take him in the future. He only stops imaging the consequences of this choice when “it bent in the undergrowth;”(5), or when the future of the choice was no longer
The poem is set in the fall when the leaves are changing colors and beginning to cover the ground. The speaker of the poem is faced with an unfamiliar fork in the road and is forced to decide which direction he or she must go. As the speaker is deliberating, he is “sorry” he cannot just travel both and it appears to be because the speaker has a fear of picking the wrong one (Frost 2). Although he “looked down one as far as I could” there was no seeing the end (4). Just like in a life, it is possible to have an idea of what will happen and there is no telling which choices will turn out beneficial and which will not. The speaker knows that although the paths are similar the outcome of picking the wrong one could be life changing. Even though he is upset he must trust in himself to know which one would be best for him in the long run.
Using symbolism he compares the roads to the choices. The road is not just a road it’s the symbol for the many decisions one must make in their life. “Two roads diverged in yellow wood/ And sorry I could not travel both” The traveler reaches a fork in the road in “yellow wood” suggesting it’s autumn, and he wishes he could travel both routes. He declines that ambition, and the road he selects is “the less traveled”. This automatically makes you assume he is likely someone little prone to follow the crowd. “Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same.” He however contradicts himself clarifying that perhaps what he said about the road being less traveled may just be an illusion.
Have you ever been faced with two important decisions? Life is full of options and when when you encounter two decisions you have to choose what path you are going to take. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” represents two tough decisions and having to choose one and not the other. Robert Frost uses a few poetic devices, such as, metaphor, symbolism and vivid imagery to express and show the decisions we make in life. These poetic devices also help Robert Frost get his point across about the roads.
Many people while reading poems take the blunt force of what is being said word by word, but that is where people go wrong. Poetry is deep and meaningful pieces of literature making understanding poems very challenging for some people. The most misunderstood poem ever written would have to be Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” mainly because people seem to be individualized and not read into the irony Robert Frost is telling. Being able to go deeper into your own thoughts and thinking outside of the box to find the true meaning of what is being said is how you figure out what the authors are trying to say. What seems like a straight forward poem that we constantly hear people saying “take the road less traveled” really takes on a whole
In the first stanza, the speaker creates an image in the reader’s mind by saying “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Line 1). By saying the color yellow, the reader is now thinking it is probably Fall. The reader also knows the speaker is at a fork in the road, by the word diverged. As the reader continues on, they would learn that the speaker is sorry he cannot take both paths. At the conclusion of the stanza, the speaker looks down the one of the paths as far as he can see and notices there is a bend in the
Life itself is built upon layers of decisions, substantial or miniscule, that become intertwined in an attempt to define who we are. I believe that the choices we make will ultimately work to construct our future, whether it is the way in which I perceive the world around me, or what I choose to believe. In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost manages to further illustrate these points in order to convey deeper meaning within the text.
...ent views on the poem, although many of them did resort back to this idea of making wise decisions many did feel as if the meaning of “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” could be misunderstood as one's own reflection on their life. Some obstacles that I did anticipate from writing this paper was finding different ways to interpret it but luckily everything worked out smoothly. The best way I was able to overcome these obstacles was to do more reading and continue to look for more research and commentary on this poem.
Choices are the main theme of this poem. The speaker realizes the choice he is about to make is going to affect his future. The point of this poem is that the speaker will not know his future until it happens. Nature and roads are said to be symbols that are very important to the speaker. It helps the reader understand why he choose the path he took. The fork at the road represents the speaker’s life. The title “The Road Not Taken” means that not all choices that one comes to are going to be easy and not all are going to be the right choice, but one has to make them at some point in life. When it comes to difficult situations like this it its not always best to take the one more traveled but the one best for them, but choose wisely.
The two roads presented in this poem represent difficult decisions we are faced with in life. He uses the relationship between the paths and real life decisions throughout the whole poem. This is an example of extended metaphor, which is used to help the readers understand the analogy between the two. The man in the poem said: “long I stood” (3), which lets us know the decision was not made instantly. It was hard for the man to make a final judgment.
The two roads that diverged are the set of the choices that we are presented in life. Particularly the big choices such as going to college, or when to move out of one’s parents’ house. The speaker states that, “he was sorry that he couldn’t travel down both roads” (line 2). No one has a redo for a choice they made if they do not like the turn out the made choice. The speaker states, “be one traveler long I
Choices are never easy, facing hundreds upon thousands of them in our lifetime, man has to make decisions based upon these choices. Some decisions are clear while others are sometimes not clear and more difficult to make. The poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a prime example of these choices in life. This poem is a first person narrative that is seen by most people as being told by Frost. The poem opens up with the narrator encountering a point in the woods that has a trail diverge into two separate paths. In the poem Frost presents the idea of man facing the difficult predilection of a moment and a lifetime. I believe this idea in the poem is embodied in the fork in the road, the decision between the two paths, and the decision to select the road not taken.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is a symbolic poem of the complications people must face in the course of their lives. Although it is not difficult to understand the meaning of the poem through it’s title, it is however hard to interpret what the author means when he describes the roads. Throughout the poem, the two roads appear similar at times and different at others. He uses free imagery to make his poem more complex for the audience.
The poem then goes on to say, “and perhaps having the better claim | because it was grassy and wanted wear.” This line in the poem shows that the speaker is not confident with his choice and thinks the other path would have been a better choice. The speaker still has not made his mind in the line “though as for that passing there | had worn them about the same”. The speaker sees that both paths have leaves on them, which indicates neither of the paths have been traveled on recently. The speaker then indicates that he already regrets not taking the other path because he wants to take it another day. The speaker then realizes that he cannot take the other path on another day because, “way leads onto way”. This line strongly indicates that the poem is about life decisions, in which one can...
The persona had two roads to chose from and wonders what would have happened had he taken the other road. Frost’s title reflects this. The first three lines, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both /And be one traveler, long I stood", tell us the speaker must choose between two roads he finds equally appealing. It is apparent the narrator has a difficult choice to make and is carefully considering his options.
The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost is a poem about decisions and how they can impact someone’s life. However, many other literary devices are used in the poem in order to make the theme more obvious to its readers. This poem is often confused as focusing on how the narrator takes the road less traveled, when it is actually meant to focus on the choice that the narrator denies, or the road not taken. Frost mentions the doubt and worry that comes along with decision-making, but how perseverance can make it worthwhile. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost introduces a theme of making life decisions, while using symbolism and tone as tools to show his readers that the right choice is not always the easy one.