Analyzing Themes in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken
This is a wonderful poem with many different themes and ideas. One of the biggest themes is not being afraid to take a chance. Some of the other themes include, not following the crowd, trying new things, and standing for something. This poem stated that the author "took the one (road) less traveled by, and that has made all the difference" so the author is telling the reader that we too should not be afraid to take another path.
The Road Not Taken is a twenty-line poem written in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABAAB. This poem starts with the author walking through the woods. He comes to a fork in the path and is torn by which path to take...does he take the path that is traveled by everybody, or the one rarely traveled upon? He decides to take the road less traveled by. By taking this path he changes his life in some way unknown to the reader.
We get the idea that the poem starts out in the fall, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (5). The season fall represents the year coming to an end, and e...
Poetry is a form of art in which an exclusive arrangement and choice of words help bring about a desired emotional effect. Robert Frost said that a poem is formed when “an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” His popular poem, "The Road Not Taken," like any other poem, has as many interpretations as it has readers. Using rhetorical analysis, one can break down the meaning(s) of this seemingly simple poem.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is often misinterpreted. For many years to come, people are going to read this poem by Robert Frost and one of many things will happen. The reader will either misinterpret or misunderstand the poem itself, and its’ sense of irony does not help either.
Choices in life can be as simple as deciding where to go out to eat or what to wear and as difficult as deciding which college to enroll in and who to marry. The most strenuous part is not knowing if you made the right decision because even the simplest choices can shape the future. There are no guarantees in life so every decision counts. Second guessing is as natural to humans as breathing, which makes the decision making process that much harder because it is more than just picking something and sticking with it, there is always the curiosity of what if? Even when faced with the most difficult decisions one must live with the choices they have made, which is very similar to what the speaker of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is forced to deal with.
The central image that Frost presents, which is the path, provides a clear picture that the reader can focus on in order to reveal something about the poem. The “two roads diverged in a yellow wood'; vividly portray the fact that it is always difficult to make a decision because it is impossible not to wonder about the opportunity that will be missed out on. There is a strong sense of regret before the choice is even made and it lies in the knowledge that in one lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every path that one encounters. In an attempt to make a decision, the traveler "looks down one as far as I could." The road that will be chosen leads to the unknown, as does any choice in life. As much as he may strain his eyes to see how far the road stretches, eventually it surpasses his vision and he can never see where it is going to lead. It is the path that he chooses that sets him off on his journey and determines where he is going and what he will encounter.
Lions are one of the world’s most famous predators. Their preys ranges from insects to giraffes; but they prefer large animals such as zebras and wildebeast. The lion will cautiously stalk its prey until it is within close range and it will sprint reaching speeds about 50 to 60 km/h. The lion will usually take its prey down by the neck using its huge jaws and razor sharp claws. The female is the hunter and will have the first meat, soon after the male comes to share the meat.
The U.S. constitution is the foundation of our national government. On September 17, 1787 it was signed by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. ("The U.S. Constitution") By signing this, the Constitution replaced the first national governing document called the Articles of Confederation. Before it could be passed, it had to be ratified by nine of the thirteen states. Soon after the constitution was finally ratified, in 1791 the government decided to add the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. (Bill of Rights of the United States of America (1791)) After the Constitution was written, many of the great delegates or "framers" called it a miracle.
“The Road Not Taken” is often interpreted as a persona contemplating a decision of traveling one of two paths that lie in front of him, in which he chooses the path less traveled, or so it may seem. Although, the
Many people while reading poems take the blunt force of what is being said word by word, but that is where people go wrong. Poetry is deep and meaningful pieces of literature making understanding poems very challenging for some people. The most misunderstood poem ever written would have to be Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” mainly because people seem to be individualized and not read into the irony Robert Frost is telling. Being able to go deeper into your own thoughts and thinking outside of the box to find the true meaning of what is being said is how you figure out what the authors are trying to say. What seems like a straight forward poem that we constantly hear people saying “take the road less traveled” really takes on a whole
When I read The Road Not Taken, I thought right away of the choice I made in high school not to study foreign languages. In the poem, the speaker makes his choice in either fall or spring - when the woods are yellow. I see both these seasons as times of new beginnings. In spring, everything new is growing. In fall (at least for students) it's the start of a new school year. I made my choice one fall when a guidance director told me I was not "college material" and recommended that I drop my French class. September should have been a beginning, but I saw it as an end to my dream for college. It's only now that I can begin to think it was-in a way - a beginning, too.
In the first stanza, the speaker creates an image in the reader’s mind by saying “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Line 1). By saying the color yellow, the reader is now thinking it is probably Fall. The reader also knows the speaker is at a fork in the road, by the word diverged. As the reader continues on, they would learn that the speaker is sorry he cannot take both paths. At the conclusion of the stanza, the speaker looks down the one of the paths as far as he can see and notices there is a bend in the
Life itself is built upon layers of decisions, substantial or miniscule, that become intertwined in an attempt to define who we are. I believe that the choices we make will ultimately work to construct our future, whether it is the way in which I perceive the world around me, or what I choose to believe. In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost manages to further illustrate these points in order to convey deeper meaning within the text.
Robert Frost, author of “The Road Not Taken” and many other renowned poems, was born on March 26, 1874 in the city San Francisco. Frost attended Lawrence High School, where he met his future wife, Elinor White. Frost married Elinor on December 19, 1985 and had their first child, Elliot, in 1896. He attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1892 and then transferred to Harvard University in Boston. He ended up dropping out after two years due to health concerns, never earning a formal degree. In 1900, Frost and his family moved to New Hampshire; Frost wanted to start farming. However, this did not work out for him; he felt that his true calling was writing poetry . In 1912, Frost is faced with an important decision; he decided
Before current knowledge of mountain lion activity had been researched, it was commonly believed that mountain lions were ferocious killers which crept down from the mountains to indulge in midnight feasts on livestock and pets. Of course, the worst harbored fear was the possibility of losing children, family and friends to these wild predators. Besides the past 25 years, little concern was given to the condition of mountain lion populations in California and much of the western United States. Between 1916 and 1971, more than 12,000 mountain lions were killed for bounties and for sport in California (California Wildlife Protection Coalition, 1995).
“The Road Not Taken” examines the struggles people run into when they come to a place in their life where a life altering decisions has to be made. The man who is described in this poem is traveling when he comes upon “two roads diverged” (1). He then has to choose which path he will take to continue on his journey. After standing at the diversion for a while, he knows he has to make a final decision. One path was worn down and “bent in the undergrowth” (5), so he took the other path, which was described as “perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (6-7). The man of the poem begins to ponder about a time when he will be telling his story of the path he took. Although we are not sure if the man regrets his decision or is relieved, he lets us know taking the road less traveled “has made all the difference” (20).
The poem entitled “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is perhaps one of the most well-known poems to date. Frost’s poem explores the different paths and choices individuals are presented with throughout their life, which can later influence their lives significantly more than originally anticipated. Specifically, Frost describes a fork in the road at which the narrator must choose between two very different paths with varying outcomes. “The Road Not Taken” emphasizes the importance of taking the less traveled road through Frost’s usage of a wide range of literary devices. “The Road Not Taken” suggests that individuals should fully experience the process of making a choice before reaching a decision as that one single choice may later have