Comparing Two Poems About Choices

You choose “Trust yourself to make the right choice for YOU.” Frequently, in the poems ”Choices” by Nikki Giovanni, and “Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, the narrators are making choices as everyone’s life consists of many choices. The narrators are choosing their further actions which will influence the rest of their lives. But, the narrators aren't letting others choose for them. In the poems, “Choices” and “Road Not Taken”, the narrators shared a theme of making choices based on an individual’s personal preferences, which is represented by the narrator in “Choices” who chooses the next best option and the narrator in “Road Not Taken” that follows his gut and decision; the two poems contrasted with the results of the story as the connotation expresses

Sometimes in our lives we are faced to make momentous decisions. We either made a propitious selection or repent about our decisions and how our lives could have ended up if we had chosen a different path. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a poem about how one traveler will choose a road that will change his whole life. The decisions we make in life should be chosen carefully because there is no going back. In his poem, he makes you think about how choices can define your life for the better or the worst, it’s all about how you look on life. He uses a lot of imagery as well as tone.

When a choice is given, making a decision whether it is a small or hard decision, it can change a person. Robert Frost uses extended metaphors to reveal the theme of making decisions when the moment of choice is given, it could potentially change a person’s life and lead them to new and different experiences throughout his poem “The Road Not Taken.” The two different roads are referred as contemplating choices that people have to make. The different roads are distinguished as “...just as fair,/And having perhaps the better claim” (6-7). Fairness is used in the poem to acknowledge that both roads are similar and may have the same or different conflicts.

In life, we encounter many decisions, and there are times where we have to let fate take the lead. Every day, we face diverging roads to choose from and as humans, we’re forced to make a decision about which road to take. What is decided may more or less be based on our personal beliefs, priorities, mood, and so on. Decisions and actions are what shape our future, for everything in our life is a reflection of a choice we have made. ‘’The Road Not Taken’’ by Robert Frost is a profound poem which relates to this concept.

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost explores different perspectives and the difficulty of life’s choices. The poem is about how life gives us two roads, the difficult road and the easy road. A traveler is walking and comes across two paths one more used than the other. He eventually choses the road less travelled on. A literary technique Frost utilizes is tone.

Both poems say that you should make the best out of life, but each poem has a different reason. “Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now” says people need to live to the fullest and enjoy every moment, because they won’t get a second chance. “Spring and All” says that everyone was born with an equal chance, so they should make the best of it. Another difference between the two poems is “Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now” was written during the Romantic period, while Spring and All” was written during the Modern

In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, we are constantly pounded with with the idea of making choices. But what about choices does Frost want us to realize? After closely reading and analyzing this piece of literature I think it’s clear that Frost wants his readers to be more self dependant when it comes to decision making. Taking the road less traveled by is how Frost illustrates this and as we break down this piece of literature you will see that Frost makes his message very clear in his poem.

“The Lamb” and “The Tyger” are contrasting poems. They seem to be opposites of each other, “The Lamb” sends a message of innocence and purity, while “The Tyger” sends a message of evil, fear, and hate. “The Tyger” is definitely a stronger poem, it’s written in questions and progressively gets more and more intense. Both poem uses symbolism and the animal represents a quality. There are references to the Christian figure Jesus, it says in “The Lamb,” “For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child (14):” However there is no references to any religious figure in “The Tyger.” “The Lamb” is written in a question and answer format. The first stanza was a series of questions that asked who created such innocence. Afterward the first stanza, it’s followed by a stanza of answers and responses to the first stanza. The whole poem is written in a gentle nature that calms the reader and adds assurance to the reader. However contrasting “The Lamb,” “The Tyger” is written very aggressively and makes the reader doubt and question the innocence of the world.

Thesis: The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, is about choices and the decision a traveler must make, about which road to take, since he cannot take both.

In the narrative poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost utilize literary devices to magnified the concept of decisional dilemma and present a message on paths chosen in the course of life. Robert Frost implemented strategic diction, sensory imagery, and figurative language that enhances the content portrayed in the poem itself. The poem focus around the turmoil of the two roads the speaker has to choose - one being a commonly taken path and the other one isn’t commonly taken is filled with discomfort and unexpected nature-. The speaker eventually selected the route of uncertainty, yet it develops the notion of individuality that opposes the influence of socially uniformed opinion. Forst’s decision solidified the concept that each individual possess the ability to form their own unique belief, and take their future in their own hands.

In the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, there is a pervasive and fundamental sense of journey throughout.   In such, the poem explores an aspect associated with human decision, or indecision, with the use of symbolism. As Frost discusses, for every road we take, there is a road we don't take.

Due to its imagery and style Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” has become a poem that is studied in high school literature. Since its publication multitudes of readers have analyzed Frost’s poem as a sentimental commentary of the choices made in life. The narrator decided to seize the day and express himself as an individual by deciding to take the road that was “less traveled.” This poem is exceedingly popular because almost every reader can understand the narrator’s decision. Having to choose between two paths without having any knowledge of where either road will lead. One of the attractions of the poem is its archetypal predicament. One that we can almost immediately recognize and relate to because each of us encounters it countless times in our lives, both in a literal sense

Robert’s “The Road Not Taken” is based on the aspect of choice since it indicates on the way one decision can change the entire life of an individual. The speaker of the poem chose one path over another, and that, he says, “has made all the difference.” The fact that the speaker always says “I,” implies that he is Robert Frost himself. However, the poet always said that the poem was based on a friend of his named Edward Thomas who thought a lot on the way our decisions impact our lives. Thus, the speaker is a teenager or middle-aged man whereas the addressee is any audience member or individuals who may find themselves in a similar circumstance. A contemplative tone is used when making a decision on the qualities of every path, while a regretful tone is applied since the speaker recognizes that he will certainly not get the chance to discern where the other path would have taken him. Ultimately, the poet used an optimistic tone that is depicted when the speaker acknowledges that following

Choices Define Us Growing up, almost everyone has heard the common phrase, “We are our choices.” Although Robert Frost did not come up with that saying, his poem, “The Road Not Taken” encompasses what that phrase means. In summary, this poem is about a traveler who comes to what we know as a “fork in the road” and needs to decide which way to continue. After much thought, the traveler decides to choose the “road less traveled by.” However, the traveler seems to think he might be able to come back someday and walk down the other path.

Robert Frost is a well-known poet; his writing is famous for its simplicity with a more in-depth meaning than what he has written down. In his poems, there is usually a choice someone must make, and these decisions represent real-life situations that most people are facing. The choices that are made could drastically change one’s life. “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” are two of Frost’s poems that are about making choices. Frost makes it easy to relate to the poems because they apply to everyday life. “The Road Not Taken” talks about the significance of one’s choices, and “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” talks about how a man is readying himself for the inevitable, he is reflecting on his past choices that he has made and how it has affected him. These two poems provide us with an outlook on decisions made in real life situations; “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” teach us to think before we make decisions because it could end up changing one’s life.