The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

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There are times in life when you find yourself standing right in front of two paths. They seem different. Yet they are the same. Choosing one and following it, no matter how hard it might be. Robert Frost born in San Francisco, March 26 became one of America’s foremost 20th century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” both portray a monumental moment in the speaker’s life, where the narrators is presented with two courses in life, where they have to choose any one path to follow. In “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, Frost’s use of theme, meaning, and writing format helps bring these two poems to life. Frost’s use of theme and meaning, both portray the decisions or choices the narrator must take in “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. In “The Road Not Taken,” the speaker describes coming upon a problem in his travels, with a fork in the road. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Bouchard/Frost). He must go down one, but feels he would not be able to take back his decision. Taking in both pros and cons, the speaker chooses the one that is less traveled. “He predicts that the path he will choose will affect his life greatly. In fact make “all the difference,” that he tells this with a sigh, “I shall be telling this with a sigh,” (Frost) indicated that he will have some questions, about where the other path may have brought him”(Bouchard). “The Road Not Taken,” is a double perspective when it comes to making choices. One is fairly obvious while the other is more subtle. “It expresses both turmoil of making the choice and the depressing expectation that the choice he makes between ... ... middle of paper ... ...ly from line to line, with the balance of rhythmic pull of the verse, “The speaker never arrives, nor really leaves” (Ingebresten). The natural scene of the woods is heightening by the drama Frost adds, while his sense of dramatic and contextual irony undercuts the simplicity of the narrative. In conclusion, the use of theme, meaning, and writing format of “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” both share choices the narrator must take daily without knowing the outcome of each decision. The poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” is a meaningful poem. It conveys an important idea of keeping one’s duties and responsibilities when alive, while “The Road Not Taken” is a decision, for good or ill, the choice he makes will be permanent and highly effecting. We cannot travel all the roads available to us; we must make a choice and move on.

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