Choice of Life in The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Choice of Life in The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

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. (Frost 1-5)

On the surface, Robert Frost’s poem is a story about a walk on a wooded road, but it had deeper meaning to him and how he feels about "the road." Also, the poem has a universal meaning about life and the choices it presents. Further, the poem is magnificently written in Frost’s own created rhyme style. Lastly, a sigh might just be a sigh to some, but in this piece it means much more to Frost. Frost’s 1916 poem "The Road Not Taken" is an example of how Frost writes poetry enthralling the reader with a grand opening and an unexpected ending that must be thoroughly analyzed.

Frost wrote "The Road Not Taken" while living in Gloucestershire, England in 1914 though he was an American citizen. His friend Edward Thomas and he would often go on walks so that Thomas could show him special plants or sights. When Thomas would choose a path, it was certain that every time he would regret the choice he had made sighing that they should have taken a "better" direction (Banerjee and Shefali 1). When Frost wrote this he supposedly pretended to "carry himself" as Thomas just long enough to write the poem. Furthermore, Frost first wrote the poem as almost a joke for Thomas. Later it held more value for him though, as an example of life choices.

"The Road Not Taken" is literally a story about a walk on a road one fall morning. The title even tells of the idea that a choice has been made before reading the poem. The opening line tells how the road broke into a "y." This simple "y" in the road alludes also to Frost’s first line of the poem and his choice of yellow ("y") to describe the fall trees. This is a simple natural symbol but, when looked into further, shows how he is looking to the winter, the future, which is a harsh season. Frost talks about the two roads and how they are the same, comparing them. "Road A" twists beneath the undergrowth, which alludes to a hard trail ahead.