Road Not Taken

Arising out of a rebellious mood, the late 19th and early 20th century was a time where many writers broke away from tradition by using modernism to take a radical approach on the way society viewed literature (Modernism/literature.com). Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where before they were looked down upon. Modernism was set in motion after a series of cultural shocks. The first of these great shocks was the Great War, known now as World War One. At the time, this “War to End All Wars” was looked upon with such horror and disgust that many people simply could not envision what the world was going to become. Thus, came along many writers including Mr. Robert Frost, who used traditional aspects of poetry and converted

Throughout this time, Frost had captured the thoughts and feelings that many had endured during the war. This played a huge part in American literature, “But this isn’t just any poem. It’s “The Road Not Taken,” and it plays a unique role not simply in American literature, but in American culture —and in world culture as well. Its signature phrases have become so ubiquitous, so much a part of everything from coffee mugs to refrigerator magnets to graduation speeches, that it’s almost possible to forget the poem is actually a poem” (Paris Review). After a lot of men had been sent off to fight, they were left wondering what their lives could have been if they had stayed and followed their original path. In fact, this poem wasn’t about just anyone, but Frosts best-friend Edward Thomas. Thomas had shared his feelings on his frustrations on joining the war because he was an Anti-Nationalist. Frost uses multiple examples of symbolism to explain the hardship that was bestowed upon Thomas. “Two Roads diverge in yellow wood” is Frosts way of portraying the two separate paths that Thomas could have taken. He then elaborates on how one of the paths is full of undergrowth but the other is wore out. “And looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear” (line 4-8). He uses these terms

“Inferno” meaning hell. Frost had also talked to professor Harlow Shapley, who when asked, told Frost that the world was going to burn because the sun would have exploded or if earth would manage to escape this calamity, the opposite would happen, it would begin to freeze like ice. Frost used this information and released “Fire and Ice” a few years later. “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice Is also great and would suffice.” (Robert frost). Frost is favoring that the world would end in fire because of all the passion for greed and lust. He then says that we could also end with ice because we are driven by hatred. The theme is about destructiveness and the passion people have for love and hate. Both these passions are made to look more terrible by understatement. In Thompson's words, "The analogy, here implied, establishes a comparison between the heat of the love or passion and the coldness of the hatred. Coupled with this is the hint of the destructive power of these two extremes of human passion, cataclysmic power. But there is also a further suggestion: these two extremes are made so to encompass life as to be gathering up of all that may exist between them; all that may be swept away