The Tone Of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Life is not always about the road taken, but sometimes the road not taken. The tone of sadness and regret in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”, creates an emotional roller coaster that everyone has been on and can relate to. The poem depicts a man forced to make one of the biggest decisions of his life through the use of allegory and ironic tone. In the poem, the speaker must choose between two pathways but once forced to make a decision he claims being “sorry [he] could not travel both /And be one traveler, long [he] stood” (2-3). The poet's choice serves as metaphor for the different directions each road could lead him in life. Staring at both paths, the man “looked down one as far as [he] could/ to where it bent in the undergrowth/Then took the other, as just as fair” (4-6). Because the speaker is in indecisive, he contemplates

In the back of the speaker’s mind he knew one road lead to a more enjoyable future than the other but refused to accept this thought because he didn’t want to regret his choice. This is shown when he uses the words “grassy” and “wanted wear”, he knew that one road had more opportunity than the other but his state of denial suppressed this idea. At this point in the poem, there is a tone of uncertainty rather than sadness or regret. After various forms of contemplating, the man decides both roads “equally lay /In leaves no step had trodden black/ Oh, I kept the first for another day” (11-13). A decision is finally made; he chooses to take the second pathway. Throughout his whole thought process, the poet is in a state of denial. This is only way he could live with making such an important decision is by reassuring himself that he will return someday and walk the other road. Throughout the last stanza, the speaker reflects on his choice by saying

“I shall be telling this with a