Robert Frost's "The Road not Taken" is an influential poem that centers on the concept of making choice. The path that the poet is walking on is splitting, and he has to decide which way to go. The poem depicts how a person traveling comes across a cross roads where he or she has to decide which way to continue traveling. The topic of the poem "The Road not Taken" clearly states that the poet chooses the road which is less traveled by other people. The poet realizes that his choice of path will change his life. This path is not just in the forest but it represents a decision in his life. He goes through really hard time deciding which road to travel. At one moment he thinks one path is better, but the very next he thinks both are equally …show more content…
Frost uses number of visual images to clearly create the picture in the reader's mind. For example, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (1). Frost explains how the two roads diverged just as the two railroads aparting from the same. He symbolizes the diverging roads to the human life. And the color yellow signifies the season Autumn. It depicts the end of the youth and beginning of the middle age. Indeed, the time for hopes and dream is gone and has reached to make a final decision in life. The poets stands there for long time "looked down one as far as he could/ to where it bent in the undergrowth" (lines 4 and 5). He is standing where the road is splitting in the wood. He looks far enough till he is confident about the decision of choosing one over the other. Also "Both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black" ( lines 11 and 12). This additionally tells how the roads are equally worn and equally laid with un- trodden leaves. The poet means that the roads were not traveled by many people. The poet decide to choose the one which was less …show more content…
He uses metaphor to illustrate the process of decision making and the acceptance of the result of that decision. Frost recognizes the difficulty of making life decision to the difficulty of choosing the road. For example, "Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood" (1). The two roads represent tough decision in life that must be made. Frost also recognizes the significance the decision will have on his future. In addition, he explores how people interprets different options. The narrator "looked down one as far as he could/ to where it bent in the undergrowth" (lines 4 and 5). People often try to imagine the outcome of the different choices. However, one cannot predict the future so in the end the strategy to imagine fails. Once a decision is made, one must follow it without looking back. The metaphor of roads shows how one can never turn back and change the past. Frost uses the description of road wanting wear as an example of personification. In poem "Because it was grassy and wanted wear" (8). A road is actually wanting as a person would. As roads don’t think, they have no feelings or need and therefore they don’t wear
I will now explain how Frost used literal and figurative techniques to describe a man traveling through the woods and his thoughts on deciding which road to take. Literally, the man appeared to be content with his travels until he reached the fork in the road, and had to make a decision. Figuratively, he is a man who was living his life and became troubled when he was faced with a big decision.
Decisions are an everyday part of life. Although many decisions made throughout the day may not be crucial to our path of life, most every decision will affect life in some way. Pop tart or bagel, milk or orange juice, as well as drive or take the bus are all choices people make to begin their day, but Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is a perfect example of a life altering decision. Frost wrote this poem when his dear friend, Edward Thomas, was stuck between staying with Frost and becoming a poet, or going to war against Germany in World War I. “Two Roads”, later changed to “The Road Not Taken”, angered Thomas, and caused him to enlist in the war, only to be killed in action two months later at Arras on Easter Day. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost has a literal meaning from the speaker, or traveler, of the road he did not take, but the deeper meaning certainly shows how decisions alter your life.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost shows the reader how the choices they make will be hard decisions and will follow them. The setting of this poem takes place in the woods, in the fall. The woods will typically be a quiet and serene place making the setting an ideal place for decision making. The setting also helps to show the symbolism that Frost shows by describing the two paths. Frost uses pathos when appealing to the reader’s feelings because any reader has had to make a decision in their life. Creating this symbol helps to relate to the reader. The Imagery that is created helps to make the reader feel as if they are standing in the snowy woods, looking down two paths, and trying to make the decision of which one to take. Frost used
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
In “The Road Not Taken” Frost emphasizes that every person is a traveler choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey-life. There is never a straight path that leads a person one sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, “The Road Not Taken” has left me with many different interpretations. Throughout this poem, it is obvious that decisions are not easy to make and each decision will lead you down a different path.
In his celebrated poem "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost describes the decision one makes when reaching a fork in the road. Some interpret Frost as suggesting regret on the part of the traveler as to not choosing the path he forgoes, for in doing so he has lost something significant. Others believe he is grateful for the selection, as it has made him the man he is. The diverging roads are symbolic of the choices society is faced with every day of life. Choosing one course will lead the traveler in one direction, while the other will likely move away, toward a completely different journey. How does one know which is the right path; is there a right path? The answer lies within each individual upon reflection of personal choices during the course of life's unfolding, as well as the attitude in which one looks to the future.
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.
In his piece The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost utilizes metaphors and imagery to successfully convey the importance of taking the riskier, less common, and more exciting path in life. Throughout the piece, Frost provides the reader with several examples of metaphors that he uses in order to emphasize the different paths one must choose to take within their lifetime. In his poem, Frost is confronted by two paths, and urges every individual to take the one "less travelled by" (Frost 19). The paths symbolize different choices an individual must make in life. He dwells on his decision for a lengthy period of time as he compares each path, but reaches the conclusion that each path appears attractive to him in their own way. Changes that occur in life also appear captivating and exciting, but the only way to know what truly awaits one in the future, they must *create* the courage to trust one choice. The poet also recognizes that most changes are irreversible, and encourages the reader to make the most out of each choice, knowing that he, as well as everyone else, can
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.
Decisions separate one’s life from another. Robert Frost proves this to be true in his poem “The Road Not Taken.” The metaphorical twist Frost uses in his words and sentence structure emphasizes the importance of different decisions and how those choices will impact the rest of one’s life.
Robert Frost utilizes several poetic techniques to reveal the theme in his poem, “The Road Not Taken”, which is stressing the importance the decision making of one is, regardless of whether or not it is agreement with the resolution of their peers, and how it can affect their future. The techniques exercised in this piece of work are symbolism, imagery, and tone. Symbolism is the most powerfully used technique due to the fact a good number of lines located in this poem is used to signify a certain object or idea related to our life or today’s world. Imagery is significant in drawing out the theme for the reason that it allows the reader to construct a depiction in their mind, permitting them to relate more to the poem and interpret the theme their own way. In this poem, imagery permits the reader to imagine the scene that this poem takes place in resulting in an enhanced understanding of the theme. The tone this work presents is an insecure attitude which allows the theme to be brought out due to the fact the theme relates to a dilemma in one’s life. As seen by the reader, these techniques strongly aid in the revealing of this specific theme. The first technique Frost utilizes to uncover the theme is the strongest method, symbolism.
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
In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, Frost shows the everyday human struggle to make a choice that could change the course of one’s life. In his poem, a person has the choice to take one road or the other. One road is worn out from many people taking it, and the other is barely touched, for fewer have taken that road. Throughout the poem, the speaker learns that just because so many other people have done one thing, or walked one way, does not mean everyone has to. Sometimes you just have to go your own way.
There are many choices that one needs to make on a daily basis to simply get through the day. Life choices however are more important and have an everlasting effect on the individual. They are less frequent but have more of an impact on one’s life. The writer Robert Frost chose to use the poem “The Road not Taken” to show how one’s decisions can change the outcome of your life. Frost used the details of picking the road, the inability to reverse his choice, the consequences of his judgment, along with the external factors that influenced his judgments to express to the readers how life’s decisions make a difference all by writing a poem.
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.