The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Standing Out
In Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken," the writer's tone and setting help to illustrate the struggle every person goes through to pick the correct path. I find this poem greatly related to my own life, since I have chosen a path taken by so few, a path of academia and self-sacrifice. The general subject of this poem is a person faced with two roads, two ideas, and two possibilities for action. "The Road Not Taken" addresses the choice between these two roads, and with the results of the choice which the poet makes. This paradox raises the evident question of whether it is better to choose a path in life on which many people travel, or to choose the path less traveled and explore it for oneself.
A number of years ago I made the conscious decision to redirect my life. The path that I chose was a path of schooling and following my long term dreams. As long as I can remember, I have wanted to work in medicine. As I started to work toward my goals I discovered that what lies ahead is unknown, scary, and not very different from any other choice. The effort that I put into my future will be exponentially multiplied when I finally reach my goal. I have found that this poem relates to my decision in many ways.
The setting in "The Road Not Taken" seems very important. In the first verse of the first stanza, Frost says, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," which is seemingly a very unimportant part of the poem. This line, however, is a metaphor in which Frost uses woods to represent life. Using this as an image helps to have a better understanding of the complexity of the problem that the speaker is facing. If someone were standing at the edge of some woods, you would not be able to clearly see what was ahead of you, because trees and branches would obstruct it. Just as I never know what lies ahead of me in my journey. Many things have happened that I never would have expected. Life is like those woods because no one can clearly see or predict what will happen in the future, only hope to choose a path that will lead you to good fortune and happiness.
I find it possible to read this poem as a statement of some self-pity on the poet's part, a feeling, perhaps, that he has been beguiled and misunderstood because he, like me, favored an isolated path.
Everyone is a traveler, carefully choosing which roads to follow on the map of life. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a single direction in which to head. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken'; can be interpreted in many different ways. The shade of light in which the reader sees the poem depends upon her past, present, and the attitude with which she looks toward her future. In any case however, this poem clearly demonstrates Frost’s belief that it is the road that one chooses that makes him the man he is.
Nursing is not my job, this is my career. Gaining advance nursing education is my goal. I don’t even remember when I decided to be a nurse because I used to say I want to be a nurse when one of my teachers asked me in my grade 2. When I was in grade 4, we had to study about Florence Nightingale and I came to know how she helped people
Registered Nursing dates back to the medieval times. Although the modern ideas of nursing didn’t come about till the nineteenth century. Florence Nightingale had a strong impact on the nursing world, she dedicated her life to begin army hospital during the Crimean War. These ideas weren’t put into practice though until the Civil War. During this time the nurses were not licensed but were concerned individuals who volunteered rather than being hired. The first school of nursing was in Boston, Massachusetts in 1873. It wasn’t until 1938 that New York passed the law that practical nurses had to be licensed. There have been many changes since registered nursing had taken place. Today’s nurses are highly educated and are licensed health ca...
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
In “The Road Not Taken” Frost emphasizes that every person is a traveler choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey-life. There is never a straight path that leads a person one sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, “The Road Not Taken” has left me with many different interpretations. Throughout this poem, it is obvious that decisions are not easy to make and each decision will lead you down a different path.
David Wyatt writes, "Nowhere in Frost is the tension between surprise and anticipation, wayward experience and the form into which it is cast or forecast, more acute than in 'The Road Not Taken'" (129). As the poem is read, one cannot help but be pulled into the questions of which road will be chosen, how they differ, and what will become of the traveler. Perhaps some hope to find guidance for their own journeys by seeking answers in Frost's work. According to Michael Meyer, "The speaker's reflections about his choice are as central to an understanding of the poem as the choice itself." (97) Frost himself admits, "it's a tricky poem, very tricky." (Pack 10)
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.
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.
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
In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, Frost shows the everyday human struggle to make a choice that could change the course of one’s life. In his poem, a person has the choice to take one road or the other. One road is worn out from many people taking it, and the other is barely touched, for fewer have taken that road. Throughout the poem, the speaker learns that just because so many other people have done one thing, or walked one way, does not mean everyone has to. Sometimes you just have to go your own way.
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, author Robert Frost uses the simple image of a road to represent a person’s journey through life. A well-established poet, Frost does a proficient job of transforming a seemingly common road to one of great importance, which along the way helps one identify who they really are. This poem is one of self-discovery. Frost incorporates strong elements of poetry such as theme, symbolism, rhyme scheme, diction, imagery, and tone to help create one of his most well known pieces about the human experience.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” show the readers similar struggles of life. “The Road Not Taken” is about taking control of one’s life and living it aside from how others live theirs. While “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” shows the desire for rest. Sometimes people regret the possibilities of the road not chosen, sometimes people feel proud about the road that they
There are many choices that one needs to make on a daily basis to simply get through the day. Life choices however are more important and have an everlasting effect on the individual. They are less frequent but have more of an impact on one’s life. The writer Robert Frost chose to use the poem “The Road not Taken” to show how one’s decisions can change the outcome of your life. Frost used the details of picking the road, the inability to reverse his choice, the consequences of his judgment, along with the external factors that influenced his judgments to express to the readers how life’s decisions make a difference all by writing a poem.
The speaker in Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' gives the reader insight into human nature with each line of poetry. While, Frost had not originally intended for this to be an inspirational poem, line by line, the speaker is encouraging each reader to seek out his or her own personal path in the journey of life. Romanticizing the rural woods of New England creates the perfect setting for the theme of self-discovery laid out and described by the speaker.
Perhaps one of the most well-known poems in modern America is a work by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. This poem consists of four stanzas that depict the story of the narrator traveling through the woods early in the morning and coming upon a fork in the path, where he milled about for a while before deciding upon one of the two paths, wishing he could take both, but knowing otherwise, seeing himself telling of this experience in the future.