The Road Not Taken
Often we have to make a decision that will affect our lives. Sometimes these choices are easy; frequently these decisions are similar to choosing between a rock and a hard place. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost{1} is a poem that presents a problem. While out on a walk, the path splits and the author must decide which path (or road) to follow. He is by himself, so the decision is his to make. After looking as far as he can down the road, the paths appear to be almost the same. On this particular day, the head of the paths looked very similar as though no one had traveled either one recently. At first he thinks that he will choose one today, then return and travel the other. But given more thought, he sadly doubts that he will ever return. He
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“I will be telling this with a sigh, / Somewhere ages and ages hense .” (16-17) He had actually chosen the “less traveled” road and realized what a large difference this choice has made in his life. “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” (19-20)
According to Andrew Spacey (2) in his analysis of “The Road Not Taken”, the poem is a metaphor. The road is life and there are decisions to be made that will perhaps change his life forever. He’s at a turning point in his life and must make a decision. As humans, we tend to over think decisions. We weigh the pros and cons. This particular decision appears to be serious, and he has no idea what the outcome may be.
Life offers two choices. Results could be very different depending on the choice he makes. Initially, he decides on the less traveled path thinking that if that turns out to be the wrong decision he can try the other option. Later, he realizes that life changes and returning may no longer
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 traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; (1-5) The poem takes place in autumn, when a traveler, who is narrating the poem, walks upon two paths in the yellow wood. The speaker says he is “sorry I could not travel both”, meaning that he feels sorrowful about not being able to take both roads.
Nevertheless, he abandons his friends and his family for the sake of his dream or irresistible desire of new impressions and adventures. Such a choice is quite paradoxical.
Instead of risking your life I would be smart to follow the path that will lead you to wear you need to be at without risking their lives. However by following the same path you may not lead up to nowhere and feel stuck on the moment of choosing. When I can’t make a choose fast I intend to make a mistake. So I would take my time to pick the best whey to follow my life without risking my life without risking my life or future. In the stories the characters choose their paths. Gatsby by choosing the rough path to gain wealth and he did, he made his life different. On the road not taken the character chooses the road that no one would usually take and it would make a big
The Road Less Traveled by Robert Frost Robert Frost's poem "The Road Less Traveled" amazingly first written was not intended to convey certain aspects of what it is now interpreted as. Life is a road with different paths. Taking one path over another forever changes the course of ones life for the good or bad.
The ambiguity which dominates the poem seems to be intentional. The only certainty in the poem is that it deals with a solitary traveler who has come to a fork in the road and must choose which way to go.
The choices made on an adventure make the journey more important than the destination. In “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, a traveler in the poem is faced with two paths which represent two different decisions. The traveler struggles with these two choices, wishing he could just pick both, and if he didn’t like one he could just go back and take the different path. However, when he finally comes to a decision, it makes a huge impact. The speaker realizes this, saying, ”I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference” (Frost 20). When he made his choice and picked the one most people wouldn’t make, it changed his life, which makes the journey more important than the destination. The choice he made actually changed the destination ,which means it is more important because it affected the overall outcome.
At the end of the poem, the regret hangs over the travelers’ head. He realizes that at the end of his life, “somewhere ages and ages hence” (line 17), He will have regrets about having never gone back and traveling down the road he did not take. Yet he remains proud of his decision, and he recognizes that it was this path that he chose that made him turn out the way he did. “I took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference” (line 19-20). To this man, what really made the difference is that he did what he wanted, even if it meant taking the road less traveled.
For every man must judge each of the choices he makes. Furthermore, whatever direction he chooses could be of failure to him. In the end, he will look back with consternation, and wonder if the road not chosen would have brought a deeper gratification and meaning to his life. His justifications for his choice will long be forgotten, and he will long for the redo of life to experience another chance for eternal joy, that will never be his because of his choice to disobey God and not repent of his sins.
A man walks down a road, life, and suddenly there’s a fork in the road; the man must choose which path to go. One of the paths is a course he already knows the destination and the other route is a road he has never been through before. Whichever path he chooses to continue on he will have to accept the result. “We have two choices in life: to accept the condition we are put in or accept the responsibility for changing them” (Denis Waitley).
Above all, 'The Road Not Taken'; can truly be interpreted through much symbolism as a clear-sighted representation of two fair choices. The two roads in the poem, although, 'diverging,'; lead in different directions. At the beginning they appear to be somewhat similar, but is apparent that miles away they will grow farther and farther away from each other. Similar to many choices faced in life. It is impossible to foresee the consequences of most major decisions we make and it is often necessary to make these decisions based on a little more than examining which choice 'wanted wear.'; In
right choices to find his way back to the straight path. Being on the right
“The Road Not Taken” examines the struggles people run into when they come to a place in their life where a life altering decisions has to be made. The man who is described in this poem is traveling when he comes upon “two roads diverged” (1). He then has to choose which path he will take to continue on his journey. After standing at the diversion for a while, he knows he has to make a final decision. One path was worn down and “bent in the undergrowth” (5), so he took the other path, which was described as “perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (6-7). The man of the poem begins to ponder about a time when he will be telling his story of the path he took. Although we are not sure if the man regrets his decision or is relieved, he lets us know taking the road less traveled “has made all the difference” (20).
In the poem, “The Road Not Taken”, the speaker has to make a big decision in his life. This poem talks about a person who comes across an intersection or a fork in the road and he has to choose which way to follow. The road is a metaphor of the choices we make in life. As the speaker ponders his choices, he feels strongly that whatever “road” he takes will be for good. So he must weigh his decision well in order to come up with the best choice and not end up regretting it. The speaker considers his thought wisely. He says, “And looked down as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth”, by giving it a proper thought he weighs his choices well and in the end, chooses to follow the road “less traveled”. “The Road Not Taken” signifies a difficult choice in a person’s life that could offer him an easy or hard way out. There is no assurance of what lies ahead; if there will be success or sorrows. But a person has to take risk making up his mind about which way to choose because this is the first step of head...
This poem is one of many written by Frost in 1916 and it is commonly used in high school writing classes. It has been written about frequently and often analyzed because of the connection people feel to the poem for the reason that everyone has to make life choices. The reading of the poem touches a wide variety of readers because each one can identify with the writers predicament of having to make a choice, with two different options, as in the poem which road to take either the well-traveled path or as he decides the less journeyed. As an outcome of this choice, the writer states, that his life was profoundly different than it would have been had he taken the other road. The other road the more traveled and seemingly the safer of the two makes the reader seem more fearless to except what the unknown has to offer thus making his own way in the world. In reading further the roads are almost the same both being beautiful and equally passable. The writer tries to explain why things happened the way they did and that is a significant moment in his life. One might pick the road that gets them to w...
The speaker continues to convey his message in the second stanza of ?The Road Not Taken.? In the opening line of this part of the poem, the speaker says, ?Then took the other, as just as fair.? Here, he is turning his attention to the second road...