Robert Lee Frost is among the most fruitful and flourishing writers when it comes to poetry and compositions. He was highly valued and acknowledged for his practical depiction of country life and his great skill on American informal speech. Most of his staggering works revolve around the country life settings in New England during the early 20th century. He used his own compositions to examine complicated social and theoretical themes. Robert Frost is a very successful and celebrated poet. He was honored with several awards which include the Pulitzer prize for Poetry. Andrew Spacey has a keen interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject. His poems are published online and in print and I have sited his synopsis …show more content…
Thomas would morn and lament about what he had seen on this path or what he had not seen and Robert saw this as picturesque and cunning enough to write about. Said otherwise, Frost’s friend felt remorse about not taking the road that might have offered the best chances and opportunities, although it was an uncertain. Frost liked to taunt and joke around a lot in is writing. He once told Thomas ‘No matter which road you take, you’ll always sigh and wish you’d taken another.’ So its mocking that Frost meant the poem to be carefree but it turned out to be anything but that. Many different readers and critics take it very seriously. It is the trademark of the writer to take such everyday actualities, in this case the murmur of a friend on a countryside walk, and altar them into something so much …show more content…
He was en route to go down one, regretted not being able to take both, so he forfeited one for the other. Essentially the reader is left to make up their own minds about the spiritual and inner state of the speaker, Robert Frost at the end. Was the decision to take the road less travelled a supportive and beneficial one? It most definitely made all the difference but Robert Frost doesn’t make it clear just what this difference is. At the same time this is a musing and contemplative poem, its as if Robert is caught in two intellects. He’s encountered a crossroads. The situation and circumstances is clear enough- take one lane or the other. But life is hardly that simple. We’re all human, and our reasoning and thinking process are always moving, trying to sort and work things out. All the speaker knows from reading this poem is that Robert Frost prefers lane or road less travelled; maybe he enjoys his isolation and seclusion and believes that to be subsequently important to him. OR he’s a free spirit, heretic, deviant maverick of a person who would rather set his own agenda and schedule. Regardless of the reason, once pledged and devoted he’ll more than likely never look
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.
Poems can be extremely difficult to comprehend and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost was not an exception. In this poem, it displays how the speaker has come to a fork in a path in the woods. He is unsure which way to go, and wishes he had the option to go both ways. He looks down one path as far as he can but then decides to take the other one because it is not quite as worn. The speaker then reflects on how he wishes he would of taken the other path and how it affected his life.
Frost makes this the only stanza which also begins with a new sentence, indicating a stronger break from the previous ideas. The tone clearly shifts from the uncertainty of the first three stanzas. When speaker expresses that he “shall be telling this with a sigh,” Frost masterfully creates a visual sigh in the third line of this stanza when the speaker states, “...and I -- / I took the one less traveled by…” creating a more personal connection with the reader (16, 17, 18). Frost leaves it to the reader to determine if the sigh is of joy or sorrowor of sorrow. Although part of him is regretful, he realizes that the things he has seen and the places he has been because of the road he did take made him who he is and “made all the difference” (20). Frost leaves the reader with many unanswered questions, wondering whether or not the speaker is happy with his choice or if he wishes he had gone on the road not taken. The rhythm and meter in "The Road Not Taken," leaves the reader unsettled and questioning. Frost uses a loose iambic tetrameter throughout his poem but mixes in other types of meter. This sound pattern creates the illusion of an irregularly beating heart reflecting that of a person who is in the middle of a big decision or crisis. Throughout the poem, the speaker skips a beat which carries the reader along with
The Road Not Taken: Poetry Explication Decisions are an everyday part of life. Although many decisions made throughout the day may not be crucial to our path of life, most every decision will affect life in some way. Pop tarts or bagels, milk or orange juice, as well as driving or taking the bus are all choices people make to begin their day, but Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is a perfect example of a life altering decision. Frost wrote this poem when his dear friend, Edward Thomas, was stuck between staying with Frost and becoming a poet, or going to war against Germany in World War I. “Two Roads”, later changed to “The Road Not Taken”, angered Thomas, and caused him to enlist in the war, only to be killed in action two months later at Arras on Easter Day. "
Throughout the poem “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost does an excellent job of using literary strategies and device in his poem. Frost uses pathos in this poem to appeal to the reader’s feelings. He uses many symbols, to make the reader think about the poem on a deeper level and really connect to it. The poem used excellent imagery to help relay the internal message from Frost to the reader. An overall view of his poem, would be a great work. He uses a variety of things throughout his poem to help make it an easier read. Making it easier to read, will also make it more enjoyable to the
In this poem, Frost illustrates that every person has his own opinion. He states “Then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim” (line 6-7). What make it better was “it was grassy and wanted wear” (line 8). It was something that was obviously not for everyone because it seems that the other people take the more popular one. “And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black” (line 11). No one had yet to pass by on this road since the leaves have fallen. “I kept the first for another day” (line 13). The desire to travel down both paths is expressed and is not unusual, but “knowing how way leads onto way” (line 14). The speaker of this poem realizes that the decision is not just a temporary one, and he “doubted if I should ever come back”
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)
As the speaker of this poem talks about, for every road or path we take, there is a road or path we do not take. If you go through the wrong road or not, the roads we take can end up making big changes in our lives. But of course, there would always be the other road and we will forever wonder what would’ve been of use if we have chosen that road. For example, lines 13-15 The speaker wants to be able to take both roads, but realizes that the nature of these roads is such that he probably will never be able to come back to this place.
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 two roads in the poem relate to various paths one might be faced with in life. One path “bent in the undergrowth” (5) which means it had taken many times. However, the other path “was grassy and wanted wear” (8). This is the path in one’s life, which seems “unpopular” at the time. Not many people choose the path that is not typically chosen by others. This is what Frost is doing in his poem as he uses these solid metaphors: challenging his readers to “go against the flow” as the man did.
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.
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...
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...
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...
Robert Frost's original intent in writing the poem was not to convey the inspiration that it has for almost a hundred years. He had written the poem to poke fun at his friend, Edward Thomas, with whom he had taken many walks. Thomas was hesitant and always wondering what would happen if he had chosen a different path (http://www.yoga.com/raw/readings/frost_road.html). In fact, Frost sent the poem to his friend, then in France, and got the response, ?What are you trying to do with me?? (http://www.libarts.sfasu.edu/Frost/PopPoems.html). However, Frost did see the impact the poem was having and stated, 'Do not follow where the path may lead?Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.'