How Does Robert Frost Use Metaphors In The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost has been and most likely will be a poet remembered for years to come. His many works have been praised for his use of symbolism and metaphors. In these poems, you simply cannot just read them and expect to grasp the meaning of what it is trying to tell you. You have to examine each line and interpret it from what you believe the meaning is. There could be many hidden meanings, or they could possibly mean whatever the reader wants them to. In Robert Frost’s poems “Acquainted with the Night” and The Road Not Taken, he incorporates the theme of individualism, symbolism, and uses many metaphors.

Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. He spent eleven years here until his father passed away. He then moved in with his mother and sister in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Later they moved in with his grandparents, and Frost started going to Lawrence High School. After he graduated in 1892, Frost attended Dartmouth University for a few months. He only ever returned home to work a couple of side jobs.

In 1894, Robert wrote his first poem, My Butterfly: an Elegy, which was published in a weekly literary journal in New York City, The Independent. A few years later he married his wife Elinor White. When

Frost was not very successful in the United States, they decided to move to England where they thought he would get more business. They were right and they made a living here for some time. Later Frost returned to the US and his success in England followed him. Frost died at the age of 88 due to complications from prostate surgery. His ashes are kept in Bennington, Vermont.

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In Robert Frost’s poem Acquainted with the Night, there is a man who is the narrator and only real character in the work. He is going away from the city in which he lives and claims that his only friend is the night itself. He goes on this walk and the things around him seem completely oblivious to his presence and vice versa. He passes by a watchman and does not try and associate himself with him. He then hears a cry and stops, but then continues on his walk, ending the poem by saying; I am one acquainted with the night.
In The Road Not take, there is a man, which is the narrator once again, walking down a road. Everything is fine until the road splits into two ways. The man has no idea where either goes and does not know if he will find his way back. He looks down one as far as he can and does the same to the other and cannot see a difference. He thinks for a moment because he knows he is alone and that this is a difficult decision. He then takes the road that is less traveled by and says that it has made all the difference, ending the poem.
In Acquainted with the Night, the narrator talks about how he has walked many times with the night, through the rain, and to the farthest city light. He describes how he is alone and that his only companion is the night. Him and the night go on his walk and leave the confines of his city seemingly to get away from it. The night we learn later, seems to represent a place of solitude for the narrator. When he is with it, he feels invisible and does not feel the need for any kind of social interaction of any kind.
“The word "acquainted" underscores the narrator's solitude, for he knows the night intimately in a way he does not know his fellow man” (Bolten). As he walks, he passes a watchman and purposely lowers his eyes not wanting to look at him. The watchman does not
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seem to even acknowledge the narrators existence. So the narrator now feels invisible. As if when he is in solitude, he is ignoring the things around him, and in return those things are ignoring him back. This does nothing to the narrator as he continues his walk. It’s never clear as to where he is going except away from the city. Like he is trying to become completely alone and find his own place of complete solitude. Only one time does he stop his walk, and it’s when he hears a cry come from the city. He then continues his walk when he realizes it’s not to call him back, nor did it have anything to do with him. The night is affecting the narrator’s very way of life.
The night could also represent some form of art or something that the narrator has that is not accepted by other people. It may be some form of dark art that modern society has not accepted. Due to this the narrator chooses to try and ignore everyone who cannot see his way of style the way he does. It is different, so it is not accepted and the narrator chooses to stand by his work, going as far as ignoring all other kinds of art completely. He chooses his own path and walks it no matter how many times he has to. The watchman that he chooses not to meet eyes with could represent some sort of critic that the narrator may loathe. The narrators art makes him feel invisible to the world. This strongly incorporates the theme of individualism. The narrator chooses to, rather than be like everyone else, be his own person and accept his form of art rather than accept what is to be considered the modern normal art. It seems that he thinks there may be some hope still left though. As he keeps walking, he stops all of a sudden when he hears a cry.
He seems to think the cry may be from someone who has finally seen the grace in his difference. When he learns that it is not, he continues his walk. It was not to call him back or to
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say good bye. The night in this poem, could mean whatever the reader chooses the night to represent. It represents difference, and the poem is an example of how far people go to try and get their differences accepted by the so called “normal” stereotype in the world. The narrator says that he has taken many walks with the night, so you know it’s not the first time he’s tried to get his difference accepted. While the night may represent difference, the city represents a much bigger picture.
When the narrator mentions the city, it seems to be something that he is trying to escape. He has walked every night to get away from it. In this poem, the city represents normality. Any kind of stereotype that says, you should be this not that can be represented by the city. To one critic, it represents be society. The narrator wishes to escape the cruelty of society and chooses to ignore it and escape and be his own person. “It becomes clear in the third and fourth stanzas that the poet feels that just as he ignores society, so society ignores him” (Kidd). “By becoming a silent observer on the outskirts of the city, he is no longer a part of the rhythms of city life, nor are they a part of him” (Kidd). Since the narrator chooses to follow his own path, the theme of individualism is really brought to light.
The tense of this poem is also very important. “The only promise of salvation is a grammatical one: the speaker says, "I have been one acquainted with the night”” (Bolten). By casting the entire poem in the past perfect tense, he distinguishes himself as a narrator from himself as a walker in the city, and therefore may offer some hope that he is acquainted with the night no more” (Bolten). Whether the ending is a good or a bad one is all up to the

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imagination of the reader. The narrator could have either found something that he and the normality have in common and is thriving through that, or he gave up his difference to fit in.
In The Road Not Taken, the whole poem is basically like one big metaphor.

“On the surface, the poem's premise is simple, but critics have examined the poem in detail and have discovered depths of meaning not apparent in a casual reading” (“The Road…”). The narrator and only character in the poem is just walking in the woods on a path. He stops when the road splits and has to make a decision on where to go. He does not know where either leads and there is no difference besides one looks more travelled than the other. The narrator is all alone and can’t seem to decide on where to go. The roads themselves can be a metaphor for any choice in your life. Take it one step further it can be a metaphor to deciding on how your whole life will

be.
“Both roads seem very similar, and their differences may only be subjective” (“The Road…”). The narrator has no clue where the roads may lead or does he knows if he will be able to find his way back. One road represents the choices that all other people have made. The road seems to be travelled the most by others who have come upon the same decision the narrator has to make now. “The tension in the poem is provided by the individual's interaction with nature, which combines a sense of wonder at the beauty of the natural world with a sense of frustration as the individual tries to find a place for himself within nature's complexity”(“The Road…”). The simple nature of the woods that the narrator is in seems to be testing him in what way that he will continue his journey. Just like life gives us choices throughout our journey. Some are small and will not have consequences. Other require thought to be put into and will greatly change the

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outcome of the future. The narrator seems to not know whether this is a small choice or a great one. He tries to see where each choice leads, but cannot due to the path going too far. Just like the consequence or reward of a choice may not take action the minute the choice is made. The choice must stay with the person who made it and take part into their life. The mere basis of a choice does not seem that much of a problem until the outcome has taken part in our life. This poem describes all of these steps to making a life changing choice. Even the narrator being alone is significant.
People usually have to make big choices alone with no one else’s input on the situation. If the narrator did have someone with, they would most likely compromise on a road to take, and they would have both taken it to wherever it may have lead. The narrator may have wanted to go the other way to see what lay ahead, but it would be too late. He would have made his choice and could not be able to turn back. The fact that the narrator says that he does not know if he could find his way back to the split in the road is also a significant factor in the metaphor of decision making. Some choices are eternal and cannot be undone. You cannot go back and change the future that has already happened. You must live with the outcome that your choice has made on your life and how it may have affected others.
The end of the poem is where the narrator makes his choice. He decides to take the one that is least travelled by. “While the narrator claims that his choice "has made all the difference," the precise nature of that difference is left unexplained” (“The Road…”). The narrator’s choice shows that he decided to be different from others and take the decision that few have chosen. By

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saying it has made a difference, can mean either good or bad. It’s all left to the imagination of the reader what could have happened next. The choice clearly did have an impact on the narrator’s life because he did not just say that it made a difference, he says it has made all the difference.
Individualism comes back into play when he makes his choice. Whether his decision was to be his own person is not known. He may have just not liked where the other choice could have lead him. His choice could mean a lot of different things. The choice does seem to state that it was very different from what he thought it would lead to. Frost may have ended the poem the way he did to make the reader think. Not only about what they have just read, but maybe to have them look deeper into the poem to see just what the ending meant.