Road Not Taken Explication

.Nolan Stringfellow
D. McGuire
English 1123, 315
23 February 2017
Robert Frost Robert Frost is often argued to be the best poet of all time, being that his wonderful dramatic situations came from his experiences with people. Along with the dramatic monologues Frost’s style of writing was coupled with the rhythms of almost actual speed, for example in line 5 in “A Road Not Taken” the narrator states, “To where it bent in the underground; Then took other, just as fair,” this statement is profound being that he is describing the paths of which he can choose. This line is representative of how the narrator is describing what he observes in a sort of conversational perspective and weighing his options. Per Biography.com Frost was born in San

“A Road Not Taken” is one of Frost’s most popular works, some critics claim that it is one of the most misunderstood. Many people thing this poem is about the freedom of free thinking and not to follow the masses. Frost stated his intent was to comment about indecision and people finding the meaning in subconscious decisions. This poem has an interesting back story to it, when Frost was in English he sent an envelope to the well-known English critic Edward Thomas under the name “Two Roads.” According to Orr, David. "The Road Not Taken: The Poem Everyone Loves and Everyone Gets Wrong." N.p., 19 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2017. Frost was inspired to write the poem by Thomas’s habit of regretting whatever path the pair took during their long walks in the countryside. Frost equated this to “crying over what might have been.” Frost was stated as being frustrated with readers misunderstanding his poem. For one the title of the work, “A Road Not Taken” it is not A Road Less Traveled according to Orr, David. "The Road Not Taken: The Poem Everyone Loves and Everyone Gets Wrong." N.p., 19 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.the road not taken, of course, is the road one didn’t take—which means that the title passes over the “less traveled” road the speaker claims to have followed to foreground the road he never tried. Frost’s word choice in this poem make the poem to me come alive. For

The poem, like many from Frost’s collection is derived from rural New England. The poem is a narrative poem that talks about an encounter with two neighbors whose property line is marked by a stone wall. One of the neighbors believes that this wall is unnecessary and the other disagrees with him stating, “Good fences make good neighbors.” This to me shows that the man that insist on have the wall does not want to be bothered by any one. Every spring the two walk the properties perimeter and investigate the stone wall, thus rebuilding the wall that the winter has destroyed. Frost to me has an art form of imagery, symbolism and figurative language. One of the imagery the reader notices in line 13, And on a day, we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again,” the wall unites the speaker and his neighbor together, but at the same time keeps them separated. Another line that shows this wall brings the two together once a year, whether they know it or not is line 27, “He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.” In the first encounter the wall or barriers are thought to be a good thing and in the second they are considered bad. Another symbol that is not as present through the poem as the mending wall is nature. Frost doesn’t explicitly describe the landscape, we as the reader can see it very clearly, and the reader seems to know what seasons