“The Road Not Taken” is one of Robert Frost’s most well-known, discussed, and misunderstood poems. Frost’s inspiration for this poem came from a personal experience. Upon his move to England, his friend, Edward Thomas, would accompany him on walks. An article written about their friendship states:
Thomas would promise the sight of rare wild flowers or birds’ eggs, only to end in self-reproach when the path he chose revealed no such wonders. Amused at Thomas's inability to satisfy himself, Frost chided him, “No matter which road you take, you'll always sigh, and wish you'd taken another.” (Matthew Hollis)
Although Frost may have written this poem purely to poke fun at his friend, the many interpretations and messages have kept it popularly
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In order to conquer the anxiety, he is contradictory in an attempt to convince himself that either choice would be acceptable. Furthermore, the next stanza consists of the speaker continuing to reassure himself that he chose the correct path. However, if it is not the right path, he will have another chance to take the right road, “Oh, I kept the first for another day!” (13). In reality though, the speaker realizes that due to his age, he is not going to be afforded the opportunity to return to explore the other road. There is no turning back. The last two lines of the third stanza state, “Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back” (14-15). The opportunity to take the other path will be …show more content…
The traveller envisions himself in the future recalling his life, “I shall be telling this with a sigh/ Somewhere ages and ages hence” (16-17). The traveller will sigh with relief that the right choice was made or sigh with regret because the other path should have been chosen. It is unclear what the sigh truly means. Whether he is filled with relief or regret, the choice will have a remarkable impact on his life. The traveller also predicts that in the future he will say he took the road less traveled and that it has, “Made all the difference” (20). This contradicts earlier stanzas by saying one road was less traveled than the other. He is predicting his memory loss will cause him to believe the road he took was less traveled or he will stretch the truth regardless of actuality. This poem is about the effects of decisions in life and the lessons learned from them. It is unknown if the traveller was happy or sad about the path he chose; he was curious and anxious about the differences the other path would have made, hence the title “The Road Not Taken.” In life we are faced with many choices, and the outcome of the other choice is unknown. It is important to make a confident decision and follow the “road” wherever it may
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost shows the reader how the choices they make will be hard decisions and will follow them. The setting of this poem takes place in the woods, in the fall. The woods will typically be a quiet and serene place making the setting an ideal place for decision making. The setting also helps to show the symbolism that Frost shows by describing the two paths. Frost uses pathos when appealing to the reader’s feelings because any reader has had to make a decision in their life. Creating this symbol helps to relate to the reader. The Imagery that is created helps to make the reader feel as if they are standing in the snowy woods, looking down two paths, and trying to make the decision of which one to take. Frost used
The persona begins to think about how he cannot take both paths and be the same “traveler”
The first line in "The Road Not Taken" is "two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost 1). This gives the reader right off of two separate choices that the traveler can choose. The second line is "and sorry I could not travel both” (frost 2). This lets the reader know that in fact the traveler did choose one path. Just by reading the first two lines the reader can already feel the tone of being decisive. Throughout the poem it gives great descriptions as the travel compares to two paths. An example of this one would be line 8, "Because it was grassy and wanted wear". This statement also lets the reader know that the traveler already knew which one to pick by the looks of the road, thus road being the less traveled upon. At the end of the poem, the line 19 &20 lets us know the traveler has made a decision. Though in the traveler’s words one can almost sense sadness. The traveler explains that one day he would like to go back and travel the other path.
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
Life has many roads you can take and it’s which ones you choose to follow that will shape your future forever. That is what I always take from this great Frost poem. He sees two roads both being equally appealing, but selects the one less traveled and how it makes his life unique. This poem is one of few that I do care for myself. It shows a man whose come to a point in his life where he has to decide what he will do with it. This is a point in our lives that everyone will come to and a somewhat difficult challenge for many. We have the many options ahead of us and must try and look ahead to what will come to decide our future. “And be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could.” I think this was a time in Frost’s life when he had just moved to London and was looking back at the choices he had made. He quit trying the Derry farm and sold it and moved to London to write. This was an awfully risky thing to do at this point with a wife and kids, but it shows his approval in retrospect. “Then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear.” This shows that he choose a path that many choose to not to. He selected a harder path in life that could have been a devastating mistake given his situation in life.
“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] ).
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.
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...
The author compares the action of trying to see the possible outcomes of a decision and the action of looking down a road. This is indicated by looking down, or predicting, the road of life to see what is ahead for the roads, or choices available, in order to choose the best one. The narrator well knows that life is unpredictable and has many bends, yet he still tries to look as far as he could because he knows the significance of making the decision and it's impossible change later. As a result of this metaphor, the reader can clearly visualize life, the choices people make, and infer the reason behind taking long before deciding in life. This is that selecting either options can change the course of someone’s life because once it is decided, the person cannot choose the other one.
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.
Once the course is complete, finding oneself is not going to be based upon the goals that have been set, but through the knowledge and time lapsed. The traveler in search of Ithaca should find themselves “rich with all [they] have gained on the way/not expecting that Ithaca will offer [them] riches” (29-30). If hope is engraved in the traveler, all things are possible. Hope is a drive that helps to keep the adventure sought out during a lifetime. In “The Road Not Taken,” hope is acquired by the path chosen being the best one, the traveler hopes for it to be the one to lead to goals and make his lifelong journey easier in the end.
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...
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” provide us contrasting and sometimes similar glimpses of life. “The Road Not Taken” is about taking control and living life. “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” entails the desire for rest, perhaps due to the speaker’s feelings of weariness from facing life’s struggles. The poet also explains the tough choices people stand before when traveling the road of life. Sometimes people regret the possibilities of the road not chosen, sometimes people feel proud about the road they have chosen.
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...