The Road Not Taken

‘The Road Not Taken was written in 1915 by Robert Frost and published in 1916. Robert Frost was born on March 26th, 1874 in San Francisco, California. He is a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry and a special guest at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. According to (“Conradt”, 2017) John F. Kennedy invited Frost to do a reading at his 1961 inauguration; though Frost prepared a poem called "Dedication" for the ceremony, he had a hard time reading the lightly typed words in the sun's glare. In the end, that didn't matter—the poet ended up reciting a different piece, "The Gift Outright," by heart. On the more tragic side of things, Frost knew hardship. Of his six children, only two outlived him. Elinor died shortly after birth,

He analyzes both paths and comes to the conclusion that both are well-traveled. After choosing one of the roads, he tells himself that he would come back one day and take the other road. He realizes that this most likely would never happen, that he would never come upon this same fork in the road because his choice will lead him to other forks in the road. The poem is ended by the narrator wondering how things would be different if he had chosen the other road. I selected this poem because it reflects the meaning of real life situations. One choice can make or break all of the other choices you make in life. Once you make that choice, you go on wondering what it would have been like to make that different decision. My favorite line in the whole poem, is the very last one “And that has made all the difference.” This line is my favorite because it could go both ways, good and bad. The choice you had to make could have lead to your success or your

Throughout the poem many poetic devices are used, for example, symbolism. Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character (“Symbolism, 2018”). Robert Frost uses symbolism to represent a major decision which is represented as two roads that have to be chosen to travel. “Then took the other as just as fair,” This quote is also known a simile, a figure of speech using like or as to compare seemingly unlike things (“Simile, 2018”). This simile compares the road less taken to the easy way through life. In the beginning of the poem, the author is describing how the woods look and the road itself. This is an example of imagery, figurative language that provides a mental image of what is going on (“Imagery, 2018”). The imagery is giving a mental idea of the surrounds in the woods and what is is