Allen John
Dr. Clay
ENGL 1301-84073
28 February 2016
The Road Not Taken
After reading the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, I have realized that there is so much deeper meaning and figurative language to ponder about. After extensive research into the poem, I found out that “The Road Not Taken” was first published in 1916 in Mountain Interval. The setting was truly beautiful because it was set in a natural and rural environment.
This poem uses a metaphor throughout in which the journey of life is compared to the two roads. We always have choices, and each choice has its own consequences. Whether the outcome be good or bad is in the decision itself. The speaker of the poem must decide on one road rather than another. He looks at each path (which are both equally attractive) and realizes that his choice would have an influence on his future life. He makes a decision and
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hopes that he may be able to revisit where the two paths connected, but he knew that the chances of that happening were unlikely. In the first line of the poem, Frost introduced the pieces of his metaphor, the diverging roads. This is a very important line because without it, we as an audience would be confused. In lines 2 and 3, the speaker portrays his regret at his human limitations. He has to make a decision. I could tell the choice was not easy for him, because the speaker said “long I stood”. When Frost said “And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth” he basically said that he inspected the road to the best of his abilities, but his sight was limited because the path “bended” in the distance. In these lines, he tries to get more information about what the path has to offer, but is limited because of the environment. In lines 6-8, the speaker indicated that the second path is a more attractive option because there were less footsteps and more grass. Even though the speaker believed the second path was better, he was still uncertain because he said “just as fair”. In lines 9=12, Frost breaks the stanza after line 10, but the main idea flows into the third stanza. This created a link between those stanzas of the poem. In these lines, he also mentions that the two roads are just about the same. Both roads have not been travelled on lately. The speaker continues to look for a logical reason to choose one road over another, but he fails to find a clear reason. In lines 13-15, he finally makes the decision to travel on the second road.
He tells himself that he will try to come back so he could have the pleasure of seeing where the first road ends up, but also admits that coming back was probably not going to happen. I noticed that the exclamation point he put in at the end of line 13 showed that he was excited about his decision and the journey that would come along with it. In line 14 and 15 he said that it was unrealistic for him to come back to the two diverging roads.
In lines 16-20, the tone shifted. This stanza was the only one that started with a new sentence. Every other stanza was part of the stanza before it. This shows that the last stanza is more important from the others and tries to get on a deeper level with the mind. In this stanza, he imagines himself in the future. At the end of the stanza, he claims that the roads were not similar from each other and that he bravely did not choose the most common route. Maybe he will actually believe that he chose the right way in the future. All he wanted to do was take “the one less
travelled”. After reading this poem I have realized that this poem can be related to real life in multiple ways. This choice determines whether or not you are a follower, or a leader. This determines whether you like to take risks, or stay on the safe side. For myself, I would probably take the road less travelled because it would be an adventure to start something. Maybe the next person to reach the diverged roads would choose the same path I did rather than the first path because I paved the way for them. Frost made a beautiful poem with so much hidden meaning and it shows that we should be proud in our choices and to have no regrets.
Throughout the course of this novel, Ishmael Beah keeps the readers on the edge of their seat by incorporating interchanging tones. At the beginning of the novel, the tone can be depicted as naïve, for Beah was unaware to what was actually occurring with the rebels. Eventually, the tone shifts to being very cynical and dark when he depicts the fighting he has endured both physically and mentally. However, the most game changing tone is towards the end of the novel in chapters nineteen and twenty. His tone can be understood as independent or prevailing. It can be portrayed as independent because Beah learns how to survive on his own and to take care of himself. At the same time, it is perceived as prevailing and uplifting because Beah was able to demonstrate that there is hope. Later in the novel, Beah travels to
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
Anticipation is prevalent throughout The Road, which is set by the narrative pace, creating a tense and suspenseful feeling and tone.
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 desire to travel down both paths is expressed and is not unusual. The speaker of this poem realizes that the decision is not just a temporary one and he "doubted if I should ever come back.
“And sorry I could not travel both” (2), the speaker is coming to a decision. In everyone’s life, they must make a decision to follow God or not to follow God. In this poem, the speaker has to make this choice. He tries to look down both roads as far as he can to see the choices that might result from taking either path. “Yet knowing how way leads on to way” (14), he knows that this decision is not temporary. He knows that once he chooses a path, he “doubted if I should ever come back” (15[VR1] ).
What does the narrator mean when he says that taking the road less traveled by has made all the difference when the roads seem to be the same throughout the poem?
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.
In the poem, a person is walking along a path in an autumn forest in the early hours of the morning, when he stumbles upon a fork in the road. The speaker wishes that he would be able to travel down both of them, but he has places to go, and he does not have enough time. One is worn out from people walking along it so much, and the other is grassy and barely worn from fewer people walking on it. Although neither of them had been traveled on that day, as the leaves were still fresh on the ground, the speaker was compelled to travel the second or grassier path. The speaker fin...
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
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.
Wood, Kerry M. "Poetry Analysis: The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost - by Kerry Michael Wood - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. 22 May 2008. Web. 03 May 2011. .
The overarching theme throughout the entire poem is that of choices. The concept of “two roads diverged,” or a split in the road, is a metaphor representing a choice which the narrator must make. Being “sorry [he] could not travel both… [being] one traveler” illustrates that, although he wishes he could see the results of both choices, as seen in saying he “looked as far as [he] could to where it bent,” he is but one pers...
The main theme of the poem that Frost attempts to convey is how important the decisions that one makes can be, and how they affect one’s future. In lines 2-3, he expresses the emotions of doubt and confusion by saying, “And sorry I could not travel/ And be one traveler, long I stood”, which explains how the speaker contemplated their decision of which road to take. In the closing, line 20 of the poem further reestablishes the theme when it states, “that has made all the difference”, meaning that making the decision of which road to take for themselves is the important key for a successful future. Frost helps to express this theme by using symbolism to portray a road as one’s journey of life. Using symbolism, Frost suggests that the speaker of this poem is taking the harder of the two roads presented before them, because the road the speaker chooses, “leaves no step had trodden black” (12...