Road Not Taken

Critical essay for “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear:

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence:

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Every human throughout the course of their life is forced to make decisions. This aspect of life is true everywhere and has no time or cultural barriers. It is a fact of humanity. People are presented certain choices. Some much more significant then others. The choices people make distinguish who they are and give them individuality. Choices are never easy to make for many specific reasons. These choices decide a person’s fate. The timeless poem by Robert Frost “the road not taken” uses symbolism to explain this aspect of human life.

The poem tells us a situation of a man traveling on a journey arriving at the crossroads where he is presented two paths. He describes these paths in lines 4-7. The two paths he is torn between directly symbolizes decisions

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