Explication of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

The Explication of "The Road Not Taken"

There will always be times in life when a decision that defines destiny and alters the course must ultimately be decided. Life is road, and Robert Frost, the author of "The Road Not Taken," describes the path of a solitary traveler who pauses his travels in effort of correctly choosing his fate. In Frost's allegory of a traveler's choice of roads, there are several factors that define the traveler's as well as every person's life. Life is not always about the road taken, but sometime the road not taken.

Robert Frost can be construed as an ambivalent author considering that the title of his poem seemingly contradicts the four stanzas to follow. It is difficult to determine if the title is a sign that the traveler in the poem regrets the decision about the road less traveled, or if the title has no effect whatsoever. If Frost is considering the roads to resemble the choices that are made in life and where they will lead, then the title could have no effect if the reader believes that destiny has already decided a path. Frost can describe the choices made in life of every person by just twenty lines of poetry since the context is very vague. The difficulty in understanding this poem allows every reader to relate the traveler's thought process to their own. Frost could even be writing a poem to describe an actual event that occurred in his life, and still the vagueness allows for a deeper explication. If the poem was direct and simply stated that the traveler regretted or rather wholly agreed with his path, not every reader could relate.

Looking at the fourth stanza Frost states, "he will be telling this with a sigh," leaving it again to the reader to determine if the sigh is of joy or sorrow. The true meaning cannot be determined out or in the context of the poem, but Frost does state that it will be an event to retell later: "somewhere ages and ages hence" (Frost 16-17). Frost is describing a situation in life where he will be reconsidering the choices that he has made. Whether it is a literal road or the choices of life, Frost implies that it is one to alter the course. The poem could also be considered satirical to an extent. The traveler is having difficulty making choices in life, and therefore is not about independent choices, but rather describes the difficulty in having to make choices at all.