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Summary Thesis of "The Road Not Taken" Poem by Robert Frost
Summary Thesis of "The Road Not Taken" Poem by Robert Frost
Themes in robert frosts the road not taken
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Ben Jimmy
2/15/2016
Essay 1
The Uncertainty of Choices That Are Made
Robert Frost was an American poet born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. Frost’s work had frequently employed settings from the rural life in New England in the early twentieth century and he had use them to examine difficult social and philosophical themes. The Road Not Taken is one of Frost’s most widely recognized poems. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is a well-thought, written and constructed poem that demonstrates the importance and significance of the decisions that one makes throughout the course life. The poem is characterized as a monologue about a man's problems when he is choosing to take the right path in life. Frost details this through the idea with an analogy of a wander walking through the woods and reaching a fork in road. They are many metaphors pertaining to life and the decisions people make, such as the fork in the word symbolizing a person’s choices. In addition, how these decisions symbolize the true
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Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back” (684). From this stanza, the speaker has observed that it had been a long time since anyone had traveled on this path because of the appearance of the leaves on the road. The speaker then expresses his own desire of traveling on both paths. The speaker then tries to hold on to the likelihood that he could still travel the other one also at another point in time. The speaker soon unfortunately comprehends that he cannot, “knowing how way leads to way” that his decision is not just a temporary one but a major one and one made he “doubts if I should ever come back”, realizing that this choice will affect other choices he will make in the future. As a result of this he begins to imagine a world in which he takes the other path, as in the namesake of the
The central image that Frost presents, which is the path, provides a clear picture that the reader can focus on in order to reveal something about the poem. The “two roads diverged in a yellow wood'; vividly portray the fact that it is always difficult to make a decision because it is impossible not to wonder about the opportunity that will be missed out on. There is a strong sense of regret before the choice is even made and it lies in the knowledge that in one lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every path that one encounters. In an attempt to make a decision, the traveler "looks down one as far as I could." The road that will be chosen leads to the unknown, as does any choice in life. As much as he may strain his eyes to see how far the road stretches, eventually it surpasses his vision and he can never see where it is going to lead. It is the path that he chooses that sets him off on his journey and determines where he is going and what he will encounter.
Robert Frost masterfully uses straightforward diction and a metaphor in his poem “The Road Not Taken” to portray a speaker who is struggling to make a life changing decision, encouraging both the speaker and the readers towards introspection. Frost dramatizes the internal conflict and consequences involved in making an important decision; an experience all humans face many times in their lives. There will always be times in life when a decision that defines destiny and alters the course, must ultimately be decided. By creating a natural atmosphere, the entire poem emphasizes a metaphor in which a person’s journey through life is compared to a journey on a road. The speaker of the poem is forced to choose one path instead of another, knowing
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.
Have you ever been faced with two important decisions? Life is full of options and when when you encounter two decisions you have to choose what path you are going to take. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” represents two tough decisions and having to choose one and not the other. Robert Frost uses a few poetic devices, such as, metaphor, symbolism and vivid imagery to express and show the decisions we make in life. These poetic devices also help Robert Frost get his point across about the roads.
The speaker is torn between choosing which of the two paths that they want to take. One of the paths is a path that many people have traveled through and the speaker knows where the path would lead. The other path, nobody has gone through, and the speaker doesn't know where it leads. The speaker chooses to be different from everybody else and choose to go through the path that hasn't been explored as much. This means that the speaker didn´t listen to what everybody else would say or do, and followed where they wanted to go.
“Oh, I kept the first for another day!” Despite this wish he realizes he can never come back and take the untaken path because his choice will lead him in a different direction. He knows that “way leads on to way.” Realistically he doubts if he will ever come back because it is impossible to return to that place and make the same choice under similar circumstances because the original choice will have 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.
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.
The two roads in the poem relate to various paths one might be faced with in life. One path “bent in the undergrowth” (5) which means it had taken many times. However, the other path “was grassy and wanted wear” (8). This is the path in one’s life, which seems “unpopular” at the time. Not many people choose the path that is not typically chosen by others. This is what Frost is doing in his poem as he uses these solid metaphors: challenging his readers to “go against the flow” as the man did.
shows the point in which one will choose because there is only one path in which one may travel. It is most difficult to make a decision on each appealing path because everyone will always seem to question 'what could I or could I not miss out on?'; The
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.
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, author Robert Frost uses the simple image of a road to represent a person’s journey through life. A well-established poet, Frost does a proficient job of transforming a seemingly common road to one of great importance, which along the way helps one identify who they really are. This poem is one of self-discovery. Frost incorporates strong elements of poetry such as theme, symbolism, rhyme scheme, diction, imagery, and tone to help create one of his most well known pieces about the human experience.
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.
The speaker, throughout Robert Frost?s ?The Road Not Taken,? is a way of identifying with the reader through basic human feelings and struggles. Everyone faces hard decisions and feels the struggle within to choose the right path on which to base his or her life. It is how we choose and how we deal with what is down the road that makes us who we are.