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Literal meaning of the road not taken
Analysis about the road not taken
What is the main metaphor of the road not taken
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Thesis Robert Frosts “The Road Not Taken” is more symbolic of a choice one must make in their life in attempt to foresee the outcome before reaching the end, than it is about choosing the right path in the woods. Describe the literal scene and situation. The literal scene of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken, is described as a “yellowed wood” (Arp & Johnson, 2009). Use of this description could be that fall is upon the wood or the trees perhaps once white have yellowed with age. Before the traveler is a road split into two different directions, he has no idea where each road leads. In trying to imagine, where each one might lead he tries to “look down each path” (Arp & Johnson, 2009), but to no avail as he can only see as far as the point where the “undergrowth” (Arp & Johnson, 2009) disguises the rest. The situation he faces is this which direction should he take? The one road appeared undesirable a route. The other road was one in which many people had been down. He still did not know the outcome of either route but his decision was to go down the road that was unknown or unproven. What mood is the speaker in at the end of the poem? The traveler’s mood is wistful, he knows that he will be “telling and retelling the story” (Arp & Johnson, 2009) of this part of his life. I think that the “sigh” (Arp & Johnson, 2009) could be representative of many things satisfaction in that as he reached the end of the unknown or untraveled road and the outcome “made a difference” (Arp & Johnson, 2009) in his life. It could also be that he wonders how his life would be had he gone down the more proven path. What are the metaphorical (or symbolic) implications in the poem? We assume that in Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, that the road tha... ... middle of paper ... ...s in our lives, we must make these types of choices do we continue with our safe, reliable ways or do we step into the unknown and as the man at the end of the poem discover it will have “made all the difference” (Arp & Johnson, 2009). The choices we make in our lives ultimately decide our future we must realize however no matter what the choice is we cannot go back relive our past and experience other outcomes. Frost conveys this theme with symbolism. The symbolism is not the physical paths the man must choose to take but the metaphorical one he needs to choose which way he wants his life to go down the same safe path he has been on the majority of his life or the unknown one in which he may experience great things or torment. This reminds me of Proverbs 14:12 (The Message) There is a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again - it leads straight to hell.
“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
Have you ever been faced with two important decisions? Life is full of options and when when you encounter two decisions you have to choose what path you are going to take. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” represents two tough decisions and having to choose one and not the other. Robert Frost uses a few poetic devices, such as, metaphor, symbolism and vivid imagery to express and show the decisions we make in life. These poetic devices also help Robert Frost get his point across about the roads.
In Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, the narrator has come to a split path in the woods. It’s autumn, and the leaves have started to change colors. The narrator is doubtful of which way to go, and desires to go both ways. He looks off to one path as far into the distance as he can, but suddenly chooses to take the other. He believes the path the chose to take is hardly as used as the other one, but authentically, the paths are somewhat identical, and the fallen leave both look pretty recent. The narrator expresses on how he intends to take the road that he didn’t take some other day, but assumes that he perhaps won’t ever come back. Alternatively, remotely in the future, he’ll be speaking about how his selection was ultimate and life altering.
Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, is a descriptive poem about a person’s conflict with the right path to take throughout life. The choice that this person makes can affect him forever. There are lots of choices like this throughout a person’s life that are made that piece together the future. What they do with these choices and the decisions they make are up to them. Although the narrator of this poem is faced with a dilemma, he still makes the best decision possible and takes the best road, which happens to be one that no one else has chosen to take.
First of all, there is uncertainty in the story told by the speaker. It is clear that deciding which path to take was a hard task for him. For example, the speaker says that he felt sorry about not being able to travel two roads at the same time, so he stood for a long time, looking down the road as far as he could see (Frost 2-4). As the speaker admits, he wanted to take both roads. Therefore, he took time, trying to notice something special in one road, or he might have wanted to see where
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” (rpt. In Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 10th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2009] 725 presents itself with a traveler that is dissatisfied with the decision that he has to make. A situation of life sometime requires a decision to be made between two things that will have a huge impact in the end. The consequences are not always what we expect.
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.
Stumbling across two separate paths in the woods, one that is worn and the other not quite so much, Frost is left with a challenging decision as to which path to follow. At first glance, they both appear to be relatively similar, but after a moment of contemplation, he decides to take the path less traveled.
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 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.
Robert Frost was born in 1874 and died in 1963. During his years of living Frost, wrote 105 poems including; The Road Not Taken, Mending Wall, Stars, and A Time to Talk (Best Famous Robert Frost Poems) and many more. While Frost was in his early and late twenties he attended school at Dartmouth University, only to return home and have unsatisfactory jobs, and Harvard University, where he had to drop out after two years due to health concerns. He married Elinor White on December 19, 1895, together they had four children but only two were able to live into adulthood. In 1912, Frost and Elinor decided to move their family to England, where Frost met Edward Thomas. It has been said, that Frost and Thomas would
shows the point in which one will choose because there is only one path in which one may travel. It is most difficult to make a decision on each appealing path because everyone will always seem to question 'what could I or could I not miss out on?'; The
One of Robert Frost’s most well known poems is The Road Not Taken. Frost had mentioned numerous times that it was a “tricky- very tricky” poem (Grimes). This can be examined in the structure of the poem, the symbolism, and the diction. The simple language he uses in the poem reveals the common relevance of the poem to the people. People have to go about making choices each and every day of their lives. However, sometimes we come to a cross-road in our lives that can be life changing that is what the sentence structure reveals to us (Mcintyre). He uses common words but in a way that is unclear to the reader. For example the opening line of the poem is “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost, Robert. “1.”). The reader is not sure what is meant by yellow woods. It may mean the onset of fall or even the coming of spring. The season could relate to the speakers stage in life. It may mean this is their youth and they have to make a decision that will plan out the rest of their life, such as I am about what college to attend. Or is it indicating he has reached his mid-life, the fall, and is now presented with opportunity to change his...
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.
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.