In the poem, “The Road Not Taken”by Robert Frost, it portrays one person debating on which road to take, with one having the better reputation, and the other “less traveled by”, but both of them equally worn down. There is no known message Robert Frost specifically wanted to send, but generally, it is about the journey of life and the choices that we make throughout it. It’s the details where people’s opinions start to split apart. At first, many people interpreted this poem as to not follow the crowd and be unique, however it is, in fact, not the right meaning. According to SparkNotes, there really is no “less traveled” path, for it says in the poem, “Had worn them really about the same/ And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black.” Neither of the roads are less traveled by, and so it is not advising to be different than …show more content…
It is just simply about how our lives are filled with choices. There is also remorse in the end, as of the line “I shall be telling this with a sigh/ Somewhere ages and ages hence.” The narrator is most likely regretting about not being able to travel both roads and witnessing the possibilities the other path would lead towards, leading to a message somewhat similar to carpe diem. My interpretation, however, was about the impact of our choices. Sometimes, even if we try to make our actions meaningful and it seems like the right way, it will not matter to the world. The line, “Oh, I kept the first for another day!” would show the joy and eagerness of expecting something big when he chose to walk the road “less traveled by.” Nevertheless, the last part says, “I shall be telling this with a sigh...I took the one less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference”, meaning not much would change and the “sigh” shows the disappointment of the
And in the poem, because this was the life decision, the narrator agonize about his path. Yet, at the end he decided to take “the one less traveled by”. The narrator won’t know how his decision will affect his life until it has already changed it. Same thing goes to Christopher McCandless. When he wants to go “into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul.” (page 183) He didn’t expect the resolution of his own path. However, he accepted his future and left a note; “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE MAY GOD BLESS ALL!” (page 199). Lastly, these both literature shares same theme concepts of tragedy. For example, the narrator said “I took the one less traveled by” Because he took the one less traveled by, it could be considered that he probably had to deal with loneliness and alienation. Same goes to Christopher McCandless. When he accidently ate false potato seeds, he realized the “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”.(page 189) Eventually he died because of starvation.
This stanza has a much deeper meaning, more than just not being able to take a path. Although the speaker travels into a yellow wood, the paths represent a very important decision the traveler must make. This is an example of a metaphor where the traveler compares the decision to two paths in a wood. Although first he believes that the second path is different, as it seems to be taken less, the traveler realizes that both are the same: Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,(6-10).
The first reason why people may misinterpret or not understand the poem is because of the poem’s title. The poem is titled “The Road Not Taken,” but in the poem, those words are not included. The words that are in the poem, and what a lot of people think the poem should be titled is “The Road Less Traveled by.” By the title being “The Road Not Taken” people seem to think of the other road as the wrong choice or maybe they visual the road not traveled as the
The title, “The Road Not Taken”, symbolizes the decision that he must make to take a path throughout life that no one else has or would choose to take. The majority will always follow one another, so the option to do so also is imminent. The narrator however, chooses to be different. He decides that taking the “less traveled by” path will change his life prospectively.
The narrator of the poem writes that in the end he takes “the one less traveled by” (line 19). This is in contradiction to what was written in the poem previously. Previously the narrator has said that in regards to the two roads “the passing there / had worn them really about the same,” (lines 9-10). This indicates that not one path or the other had been travelled on more or less as the roads are equally worn. The narrator also states that the roads “equally lay / in leaves” (lines 11-12). This again suggests that neither road is taken more than the other and that the title of the poem cannot refer to the road most people decide not to
"I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference. " The narrator has made a firm life decision and is sticking with it, much like the metaphor of the path that will always be there as a
The structure, imagery, tension and ambiguity all add to the complexity and unification of the poem. Each add layers of thoughts and new information to the poem and signal to the reader that it is more than what one might originally have thought. The reader must take time to peel back each layer in order to truly begin to understand the poem. “The Road Not Taken” purposefully makes the reader decide which road the speaker took and where that road took him; it forces the reader to think critically. This poem was very successful in showing unification through its use of imagery, tension, ambiguity and structure and should be added to the Western Tradition.
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...
In his celebrated poem "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost describes the decision one makes when reaching a fork in the road. Some interpret Frost as suggesting regret on the part of the traveler as to not choosing the path he forgoes, for in doing so he has lost something significant. Others believe he is grateful for the selection, as it has made him the man he is. The diverging roads are symbolic of the choices society is faced with every day of life. Choosing one course will lead the traveler in one direction, while the other will likely move away, toward a completely different journey. How does one know which is the right path; is there a right path? The answer lies within each individual upon reflection of personal choices during the course of life's unfolding, as well as the attitude in which one looks to the future.
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
This poem by Robert Frost was first read to me in the last year of my high school experience. Back then, not only did I have absolutely no interest in any literary work, but moreover, had no intension to lye there and analyze a poem into its symbolic definitions. Only now have I been taught the proper way to read a literary work as a formalistic critic might read. With this new approach to literature I can understand the underlying meaning to Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken". In addition to merely grasping the author's intension, I was able to justly incur that this poem, without directly mentioning anything about life's decisions, is in its entirety about just that.
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...
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...