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Road Not Taken Tone

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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. 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.

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Robert Frost’s tone in the poem is both introspective and vacillating, but there is a change towards the end of the poem. We learn that there are two paths to take, but the traveller, who we assume is Robert Frost, is uncertain of which one to take. In the second stanza, two verses- “Then took the other, as just as fair / And having perhaps the better claim,” enable us to clearly see that this is a decision in which Frost is putting a lot of thought into. With his contemplative tone, we can apprehend that this is really a life decision; not just a choice between two paths. Towards the end of the poem, there is a drastic change of the indecisive tone to a tone of regret. This ironic tone is inescapable. In the excerpt: “I shall be telling this with a sigh/ Somewhere ages and ages hence,” the poet anticipates his own future insincerity. He expresses a sign of regret, meaning he took the wrong decision. After reading this, we came to realize that not all decisions have to be clearly thought out or over

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