The Road Not Taken Research Paper

Taking the Right Road

Many decisions one will encompass throughout their life do not come easily and often have pros and cons. Indecisiveness serves as an obstacle in making these choices, whether it be simple or complex. Making the right choices isn’t always a split-second process; if the wrong choices are made, then pangs of regret or uncertainty can take a toll on one’s future through unplanned consequences. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” has thematic elements of making the right choice, while using a tone of reflection and uncertainty, imagery, and extended metaphors and symbols. Throughout the poem, the speaker is constantly uncertain of making choices, especially upon arriving to “two roads diverged in yellow wood” in which he “could not travel both.” In order to solve his indecisiveness, he “looked down one path as far as [he] could” before he “took the other” because it had “the better claim, / Because it was grassy and

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. Before making the decision, the speaker looked down one of the paths of the two until he could see “where it bent in the undergrowth.” Imagery of undergrowth and others also plays an important role in detecting the metaphorical viewpoint of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not