The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost is a poem about decisions and how they can impact someone’s life. However, many other literary devices are used in the poem in order to make the theme more obvious to its readers. This poem is often confused as focusing on how the narrator takes the road less traveled, when it is actually meant to focus on the choice that the narrator denies, or the road not taken. Frost mentions the doubt and worry that comes along with decision-making, but how perseverance can make it worthwhile. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost introduces a theme of making life decisions, while using symbolism and tone as tools to show his readers that the right choice is not always the easy one. Frost’s main theme was to show his readers the difficulties of decision-making and how one choice can impact a person’s whole life. He is trying to make the point that when given two choices, it is sometimes more worthwhile to choose the more difficult one. When describing the two paths, he describes one as more difficult than the other, but later says that they are about the same. He eventually chooses the second path, saying he “then took the other, as just as fair” (6). This choice is significant later on in the poem, as this decision ends up shaping his life. Although he faces trials and questions his decision, in the end he realizes that by taking the road less traveled by, he has ultimately chosen the right path. In addition, Frost uses symbolism to illustrate that the easy decision is not always the right one to choose. Symbolism is crucial in this piece of work because Frost uses it to show his readers the difference between the two roads that the narrator needs to choose between. For example, he describes road less travele... ... middle of paper ... ...ng his emotions with each choice he makes. In conclusion, Frost uses the symbolism and tone to display the theme to his readers. He teaches the lesson that although choosing the harder path may be more challenging, it also has the chance of being more worthwhile. By using symbolism to metaphorically represent the two choices and the difficulty of the narrators decision, Frost illustrates to his audience that the right choice may not always be clear. However, Frost uses tone to show that even though the narrator was unsure of his decision at first, it all worked out in the end. The theme of life decisions is so relatable to its audience because everyone faces a difficult at some point, and Frost makes the point that hard decisions are a part of life, as are doubt and regret, but making the most out of the circumstances is the best way to be pleased with the outcome.
The Road Not Taken and Neither Out Far Nor in Deep by Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost is an American poet who is known for his verse concerning nature and New England life. He was born in San Francisco in 1874. When his father died in 1885, his mother moved the family to Lawrence, Massachusetts. Frost attended college sporadically after graduating high school and made a living by working as a bobbin boy in a wool mill, a shoemaker, a country schoolteacher, editor of a rural newspaper, and a farmer. He also wrote poetry but had little success in having his poems published until, in 1912, when his family moved to England.
Frost relays the message of life choices through direct symbolism, great use of imagery, and an influential paradox. The symbolism portrayed in Frost’s poem emphasizes the importance of life choices and decision making. With every decision in life, there is always
Life has many roads you can take and it’s which ones you choose to follow that will shape your future forever. That is what I always take from this great Frost poem. He sees two roads both being equally appealing, but selects the one less traveled and how it makes his life unique. This poem is one of few that I do care for myself. It shows a man whose come to a point in his life where he has to decide what he will do with it. This is a point in our lives that everyone will come to and a somewhat difficult challenge for many. We have the many options ahead of us and must try and look ahead to what will come to decide our future. “And be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could.” I think this was a time in Frost’s life when he had just moved to London and was looking back at the choices he had made. He quit trying the Derry farm and sold it and moved to London to write. This was an awfully risky thing to do at this point with a wife and kids, but it shows his approval in retrospect. “Then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear.” This shows that he choose a path that many choose to not to. He selected a harder path in life that could have been a devastating mistake given his situation in life.
Choices are never easy to make for many specific reasons. These choices decide a person’s fate. The timeless poem by Robert Frost “the road not taken” uses symbolism to explain this aspect of human life. The poem tells us a situation of a man traveling on a journey arriving at the crossroads where he is presented two paths.
The imagery created in The Road Not Taken, helps the author depict a internal and physical conflict of a decision that will change his path forever. The imagery used in the poem is when Frost states, “And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there, Had worn them really about the same,” (Line 7-10 Frost) The imagery used by the author creates a mental image for the reader to see the important differences of the description of the path, the safe route looking more pleasant and comfortable for him to walk, while the other is dark and abandoned, giving it more of a risk. Seeing both and describing their appearance, it has an influence on the author but also the reader. Frost not only applies his own life between making an important decision to stay safe or take a risk, but this mental image is also allowed to be applied to the readers. Frost makes the decision to take the risky route, which is also relevant still to our society. Frost explains the risky road was well worth it because of the positive energy he receives. Creating this image, he wants the reader to understand it is well worth it to take a risk in your life because they might feel the same energy Frost
Frost realizes that had he taken the other road he would not be where he is today. He was adventurous and choose the road that had been traveled the least recently and that one decision changed his life
This conclusion, however, does not make sense when we look at what the protagonist told us earlier in the poem- neither path is more traveled than the other. Frost seems, instead, to allude to the psychological struggle inherent in decision-making. Eventually, a choice is made, and because the two roads are identical, the narrator picks one, and tells himself that one day he will come back and choose the other, just to see what could have been. While it was made clear that both roads were the same, the narrator fools himself into thinking they were not. Despite the beginning of the poem, it isn’t wholly clear if in the end the narrator sighs out of contentment, or regret. Poetry is, if nothing else, open to
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)
The first metaphor Frost uses in this poem can actually be found in the first line: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The two roads splitting in the woods is a metaphor for a choice you must make when presented with two different options. Wherever the speaker’s life has taken him so far, he has come to the point where he must make an important decision to go any further (Schmoop). The second metaphor Frost uses can be found in lines four and five: “And looked down one as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth.” Looking down the road is a metaphor for the future; when making a decision, we can only predict so much. Just like how the speaker can only see the path in the woods for so far we can only see the consequences of our decision in the near future. A third metaphor can be found in lines 13 through 15: “ Oh, I kept the first for another day! / Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back.” Here, it’s clear the speaker wanted to take both roads; however, he realizes that he will probably never be able to come back to this crossroads. This is a metaphor for a decision that changes everything; a decision you have made where you have reached a point of no
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.
Frost’s use of theme and meaning, both portray the decisions or choices the narrator must take in “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. In “The Road Not Taken,” the speaker describes coming upon a problem in his travels, with a fork in the road. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Bouchard/Frost). He must go down one, but feels he would not be able to take back his decision. Taking in both pros and cons, the speaker chooses the one that is less traveled. “He predicts that the path he will choose will affect his life greatly. In fact make “all the difference,” that he tells this with a sigh, “I shall be telling this with a sigh,” (Frost) indicated that he will have some questions, about where the other path may have brought him”(Bouchard). “The Road Not Taken,” is a double perspective when it comes to making choices. One is fairly obvious while the other is more subtle. “It expresses both turmoil of making the choice and the depressing expectation that the choice he makes between ...
In using a simple fork in a road, Frost writes much to symbolize life and choices in which one will make. Frost uses unique ability to see an ordinary, everyday activity to portray such a theme. By using such simple endeavors, Frost reaches his audience on
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...
Perhaps one of the most well-known poems in modern America is a work by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. This poem consists of four stanzas that depict the story of the narrator traveling through the woods early in the morning and coming upon a fork in the path, where he milled about for a while before deciding upon one of the two paths, wishing he could take both, but knowing otherwise, seeing himself telling of this experience in the future.
The road which leads them to what they believe to be happiness. One of Frosts commonest subjects is the choice the poet is faced with