One of the most interesting things about Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is how Frost meant for his poem to be taken as a satire of his friend, Edward Thomas, but instead was taken at face value and as a metaphor for the choices we make in life ( Orr 1). The poem itself, is a about a traveler at a cross roads. The traveler looks at one and then looks at the other describing it as, “as just as fair.” The speaker then contradicts himself in the next line by saying the second path, “perhaps having the better claim.” The poem ends with the speaker taking the path less traveled saying, “that has made all the difference.” The speaker in the poem has a regretful tone, which allows readers to connect this to Frost’s real life experiences. However, Frost intended the reader to focus on the speaker’s regretful tone, to show it was a satire of Edward Thomas’s indecisiveness. The Poem is written in four stanzas with five lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAAB throughout the entire poem. The meter is loose iambic meter, however most of the …show more content…
The roads have “no step had trodden black,” meaning that the speaker is the first one to travel on the path. The speaker then says, “Oh, I kept the first for another day!” This shows the speaker’s indecisiveness because it shows he thinks he can take the other path if the second one does not work out. However, once on the path the speaker realizes he will most likely never return back. The last stanza starts with “I shall be telling this with a sigh.” This shows a regretful tone of the speaker. The speaker then says “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- / I took the one less traveled by.” However, this line directly contradicts stanza two, when the speaker said the two roads “Had worn them really about the same.” The final line of the speaker is the most famous of the poem, it ends with “And that has made all the
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly.
In the end of the narrator’s consciousness, the tone of the poem shifted from a hopeless bleak
Poetry requires comprehension and timely analyzation. A poem may convey something completely different after it has been broken down, piece by piece, and read more clearly. In poetry, length is not equivalent to substance. Therefore, a poem can range any where from a few lines to a few pages. Author’s often use literary devices to further communicate their message to the reader. In order to fully comprehend Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” one must understand how the use of irony aids in communicating the main theme.
“The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, is one of the most famous and recognized poems, however, it is also one of the most misinterpreted poems. The poem’s most familiar lines are the last few, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference” (18-20). These powerful lines that have made the poem so popular make it very easy for a reader to believe that Frost’s intention is to motivate his audience to be different and to deviate from the majority, however, a deeper look at the text reveals otherwise. A quick glance the poem leads the reader to believe that the narrator took a path that isn’t chosen very often, but the text reveals that both paths are actually very similar.
But upon further examination, Frost says that one road has “perhaps the better claim / Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (7-8). The narrator, who is unsure “if [they] shall ever come back” (15) chooses the path “less traveled by / And that [made] all the difference” (19-20). Many people, students and teachers alike, are stumped by majority of this poem. Eisiminger taught this poem, and a student of his asked, "How can there be a less traveled road…if both roads are worn 'really about the same?" (183).
An abundance of imagery is used throughout “The Road Not Taken” to captivate a scenic process upon making the right choice. The opening line of them poem dives right in to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind by saying “two roads diverged in yellow wood” which depicts fall time where the leaves have turned yellow. This is further painted where the roads “equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black,” conveying that it’s towards the end of fall when the leaves have already left their branches, but not too late since the leaves seem to be unworn and freshly spread across the ground. It also portrays that the paths are seldom traveled on.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is a poem whose literary meanings were lost with the passing of time, leaving it a rather tricky poem to decipher. In and of itself, it is a poem about life and the choices we make that affect us daily. Be it a choice made with regrets, or none whatsoever, later on we will turn back on that moment and wonder what could be different had we not made the choice we did at that point in time. “I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by,
Although the poet breaks after line ten, the main idea continues into the third stanza, creating a link between these parts of the poem. Here the speaker states that the paths are "really about the same."(10). Neither path has recently been traveled, although he is searching for a clear, logical reason to decide one path over the other, however, he cannot find a suitable reason. Lines 13 -- 15 the traveler makes his decision...
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.
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
Robert Frost wrote for the reader to ponder about small choices made and the impact that these choices have later on in life. Written by Robert Frost, the narrative poem “The Road Not Taken” explores the topic of choices. Beginning with a traveler coming upon a fork in a road, the speaker and attempts to decide which path to take. At the end of the poem, after the reader uncovers the truth that the speaker is actually deciding what choice to make. At the end of the poem the speaker explains that the choice that they made after coming upon the fork in the road has made all the difference in the speaker’s life.
Also "Both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black" ( lines 11 and 12). This additionally tells how the roads are equally worn and equally laid with un- trodden leaves. The poet means that the roads were not traveled by many people. The poet decide to choose the one which was less
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 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...
The last stanza is a controversial topic as it can be interpreted in two ways. It may be a sigh of joy and relief or a sigh of regret. The road that the speaker did not take and the possibilities it held will always remain in the realm of speculation. We learn that the poet intend to come back to the road not taken but deep down he was also aware that it not be possible to do so.