Robert Frost The Road Not Taken Analysis

"The Road Not Taken" is one of the number of Frost's poems that has endures through the years. Frost is well known for his reflective and philosophical nature within his poems. "The Road Not Taken" is both about actual roads as well as paths in life. The first person narrator of the poem describes his decision-making process as he takes a walk or hike in the outdoors. The narrator literally comes to a point in his journey where the road he walks splits; his most important choice for his current journey, as well as the entire journey that is his life comes to a crucial juncture. The poem and the author intend for the reader to engage with the experience of making choices in life. Readers may consider that the everyday choices made in life have literal, direct, and immediate results, yet each of the small choices additionally

People are given choices and must choose a path, which will lead them further in life, without having sight of what is in their future. Similarly, Frost says that he looks down without being able to see where the path leads by saying, "And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth" (Frost 5). Furthermore, Frost is stating how the two split roads are the symbol of having the opportunity to choose things throughout life, and that whichever path is left untraveled is really "The road not taken" which is the title of the poem. In addition to symbolism, Frost uses the ideas of ambiguity and irony.

Frost writes this poem with a calm and collective narration, spoken by the traveler, who is talking with himself trying to decide which road is the better choice. In line one Frost introduces the diverging roads, which are his main metaphors. Diverging being the key word in this line because it suggests that the traveler must make a choice. Line two the traveler expresses his grief of not being able to travel both. Yet, the choice is not easy, since "long I stood" (3)

Frost shows the readers that it is hard to choose something without knowing what will be the result, thus he wants to try both of the options to decide on something, when he says “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,/ And sorry I could not travel both”. Whole poem is constructed of this metaphor, and every line refers to something in life. In the last part where Frost says, “I took the one less traveled by” he implies the idea that people wish to be different from others, thus they are prone to choose the option which had not been chosen by many other people. Instead of saying that he was having hard time deciding on a thing to do, Frost chose to use the metaphor of a road, which forced the readers to use their imagination to understand the real meaning behind what he

To start with, Frost displays the main idea of decision making by the words he uses throughout the poem. As much as people do not want to make choices, it is going to happen; life is full of them. Indeed, the first line hints that a choice is going to have to be made. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1). Therefore, people have to decide whether to go left or right, this way or that way. For some people making a decision is the hardest thing to do. Sometimes the choices presented in front of people could work either way. In the poem, Frost makes both roads seem equally desirable that the reader has no idea as to what path the traveler will choose. “Had worn them really about the same,” (10). With the choices being similar it makes deciding that much harder. Then there are some who, no matter what choice they make are never satisfied. Also, people often doubt their own abilities to make decisions and go into the “what if” mindset. With this in the

Somewhere during your middle school or possibly even high school course you heard one of your literature teachers proclaim with a robust attitude, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- / I took the one less traveled by, / and that has made all the difference” (Frost 1132). These iconic lines are ones that we have all grown up hearing when faced with a tough decision, yet few people have taken the chance to look even deeper into the grandeur that is Frost’s poetry. By his use of imagery, rhyme sequence, and other literary elements, Frost has managed to make this iconic poem relatable to each and every person with its rich philosophical

The poem ¨The Road Not Taken¨ is an extended metaphor written by Robert Frost. The Speaker described himself as walking in the woods and coming to a point where the path splits apart where he must choose which one to take. He wants to take the road less traveled but as he walks down the path he notices they are no different from each other. The speaker then regrets his decision knowing he will never be able to go back and take the other path. The narrative story Frost has written is an extended metaphor of how in life we come to points where we need to make decisions and once we make them there is no going back or changing them. He uses repetition, similes, imagery and of course a metaphor which builds upon the poem's theme and message.

Frost perfectly portrays this message by using two paths as a symbol of ‘’distinct roads’’ which will either lead him to a successful life or one of regret and dismay. Frost’s use of metaphors, archetypes, various tones, and imagery in the poem provides a valuable wisdom that we should never let other people’s choices shape our lives. One

The poem “The Road Not Taken”, focuses on the theme of choices. Frost accomplished the theme by using conflict and imagery. Every single person, at one point in their life or another, faces a fork on the road that causes a conflict. Conflict on choices, begins an inner battle within one’s self and it causes turmoil. For example, the quote “Two roads diverge in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both (Frost line 1)”, the narrator in this poem has to make one choice; he has to go either one direction or another in life and he cannot look back. The choice itself

Robert Frost’s accentuated metaphors enhance the essence of the poem, expanding the immediate scope of a man who contemplates between choosing two roads upon his course. The speaker first encounters “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1) at the beginning, introducing the metaphorical significance of the woods’ representation of the speaker’s life. In addition, the fork in the road is a metaphor for a choice; the speaker has approached a point in his journey where he can go no further without making a decision that leads him down one path and does not allow him to experience the unchosen path. When the speaker “look[s] down one as far as [he] could,” he expresses that no one knows that the future will bring as he can’t look beyond “the undergrowth”

Frost uses several techniques in his poem, but perhaps the most significant is his use of the metaphor. First, he describes “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1). The roads represent the different choices that people have to make in life and how there isn’t always one choice to be made. Each path is an important decision which he must make, so he has to choose carefully when examining each path. When he “looked down one as far as (he) could to where it bent in the undergrowth” (4-5), this represents him not being able to predict and see the future. The forest represents the unknown, and he cannot see or predict his unknown future. One may think that his choice

In the Robert Frost poem ‘’The Road Not Taken’’ there is a pervasive and in many ways intrinsic sense of journey throughout. In such, the poem explores an aspect associated with human decision, or indecision, relative to the oxymoron, that choices with the least the difference should bear the most indifference, but realistically, carry the most difficulty. This is conveyed through the use of several pivotal techniques. Where the first such instance is the use of an extended metaphor, where the poem as a whole becomes a literary embodiment of something more, the journey of life. The second technique used is the writing style of first person. Where in using this, the reader can depict a clear train of thought from the walker and understand

Frost presents the traveler's choice of paths as a metaphor for the difficult decisions a person must make in life. The divergent paths are the choices to be made at various points along the way. Regardless of how he tries, the traveler cannot see beyond where the path is "bent in the undergrowth" (5). Likewise, nobody can predict what effect one choice will have on his life. The traveler sees the two paths as very similar or "just as fair" (6). As much as the traveler would like to return to the diverging roads, he realizes that he will not get another chance to travel the other path. With maturity comes a resignation that a choice has affected a person's life and there is no going back. He also tries to make the best of his decision by saying that it has "made all the difference." (20).

Not only are metaphors utilized throughout the poem, but a literary device known as Imagery is as well. Imagery is alternative as important a device for it allows for the reader to have a clear picture of what the character in the poem is visualizing. Furthermore, it also helps covey the theme the author is aiming to represent to the reader. Imagery is made known in stanza two line three, which states, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the readers the traveler is coming up with a reason for why one path could be more favorable over the other. The reader analyzes this line of imagery to obtain a clearer representation of the traveler’s decision-making process. Another line where the author uses imagery is in stanza two line five, which states, “Had worn them really about the same” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the reader that the paths are “worn” down, which informs the reader that both of his choices have been equally chosen by people before him. These examples help the reader begin to form the theme of self-justification in decision-making. After analyzing the metaphors and the imagery Frost uses in this poem, the reader can conclude so far that the theme the poet is conveying

The poem begins with a literal fork in the road. Almost automatically Frost allows us to picture ourselves as the subject of the poem. His vivid imagery describes how the road looks with the leaves turning colors during the fall season “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” () we are transported into the poem. Due to the beauty of both paths the speaker wants to travel both roads but he understands that is not possible. The man in the poem does not want to stay a long time in the middle of the two roads so he knows he has to make a choice soon. He begins to examine the roads closely and one seems like the better option but he chooses the other one despite peering onto the path of the seemingly better choice .