Critical Analysis Of The Road Not Taken

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“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

In his poem “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost discusses the theme of choice. The speaker of the poem finds himself standing in front of two roads diverging in a wood. He is in the process of decision-making for quite a while until he finally takes one of the roads. Now, he spends his time thinking over the choice he made and how he will relate to this choice in the future. To effectively convey the uncertainty of decision-making, Frost develops ambiguity and uses nature imagery in the poem.
First of all, there is uncertainty in the story told by the speaker. It is clear that deciding which path to take was a hard task for him. For example, the speaker says that he felt sorry about not being able to travel two roads at the same time, so he stood for a long time, looking down the road as far as he could see (Frost 2-4). As the speaker admits, he wanted to take both roads. Therefore, he took time, trying to notice something special in one road, or he might have wanted to see where …show more content…

It is used for setting the scene of decision-making. For example, Frost creates the image of a yellow wood, so the reader can imagine that it is fall, which can be linked to the speaker growing old and being in the mood of reviewing the choices made earlier in life. Two roads diverging in a wood are also a metaphor for roads people take in their lives, or choices they make. Furthermore, the first road the speaker was looking down for a long time can be a metaphor for his future. Just as the road could be seen only to the point “where it bent in the undergrowth” (Frost 5), so people can see the effects of their choices only for a short time into the future. Nothing can be seen on the metaphorical road behind the undergrowth, which can also be interpreted as a metaphor for uncertainty. Therefore, the future is metaphorically described as uncertain, regardless of the choice being

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