“The Road Not Taken” written by Robert Frost uses several poetic devices such as imagery and personification to emphasize how indecisive Frost is about his decision on which road he should take. “The Road Not Taken” is about how the narrator chooses a path that he was once confused and worried about but over time become content with his final decision. Frost uses the debating between the two roads to show the reader the two choices that are presented to him and how those two choices offer countless amount of possibilities. There are multiple different ways to decipher the poem, but Frost connects with the reader in the sense that no matter what road is taken, another road will later replace the past road. Frost begins to notice one of the two roads looks more worn down than the other, “Though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same” this is representing real-life traumas and can show the decision making process when choosing between two options. Looking down one of the roads of life before actually following the trail shows a different perspective and point of view from the basic stand point of only seeing a problem one way and never seeing the problem or decision from another point of view. Frost decides in the end to take one of the paths and says he will take the second path another day although he may never go back to the starting point of his journey. It is more than just human instinct to not want to take the more unnatural or harmful pathway; it is easier to take the cleaner path so that the problem will be over with faster and Frost depicts this problem perfectly in the form of a short poem. Frost entrances the reader’s mind with the bountiful amount of imagery within the poem. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” the comforting and well-known nature that Frost describes contradicts against the terrifying reality of the unknown through decision making. Frost goes on to explain how he, as many others do, try to visualize what his life would be like if he were to go down one of the roads he chose, “Long I stood and looked down one as far as I could” worrying about how decisions will affect every independent life can be a hassle and trying to understand and fully
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.
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
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
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)
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
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
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
In the first line of the poem Frost already begins to lay out his setting for the reader saying, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”(1). This allows the reader to visually see what the narrator sees, which makes the poem much more powerful and realistic. Also Frost had to use imagery to put reader in the narrator’s shoes, so it’s as if the reader also has to make the decision on which road is the best to take. Even though the roads are not any different from each other, the details the narrator gives makes even the reader for a moment believe that one is better than the other. This manipulation that Frost creates using imagery makes the reader experience first hand the theme that he made which is to make the best of your situation. Frost was able to put the reader in the same situation and cause them to even weigh their options for a
Frost’s use of imagery, is perhaps the strongest of all the poetic devices that he has weaved into the poem. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...and i'm sorry I could not travel both, long I stood...and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth”(1-5), is the first of Frost’s use of imagery, which is evidently also the first stanza. I interpreted this in two ways, literally and figuratively. Literally, it is about a person, who is at the fork of a road and does not know which road to progress on. Figuratively, Frost is using the two roads to symbolize the different choices that could be made and how
However, the most crucial trait related to the theme is the metaphorical language where Frost compares roads to optional courses people can take in their lives. By the speaker regretting he could take only one "road," it means he does not have the chance to take several directions in life at one time to see how each will work out, since he cannot look ahead to see where each choice might lead ("undergrowth": or our inability to foretell the future), or where the next choices in each of those "roads" would also lead. He must choose one and see where it will lead and what other choices will follow on that road. One thing the speaker knows is the choice is not to be taken lightly because it could, as he realizes while he reflects, be the difference between two very different life experiences ("And that has made all the difference").
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”
"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
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 .
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 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