Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

But in the end, Frost leaves the page open to the reader 's decision on symbolism. That being said, from a literary standpoint symbolism is definitely present in this poem and unquestionably contributes to its greatness.

Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is a tricky poem to understand. While Frost uses a metaphor to disclose the speaker’s emotions, he also reveals a meaning behind the emotions themselves. This poem showcases Frost’s use of humor to add yet another depth of meaning, but the metaphor throughout the poem must be understood first. The two roads in the poem represent different directions in life.

The road not taken by Robert Frost is about choosing paths, and choosing a direction. The paths are ones in life that are not necessarily physical ones, but more likely spiritual. Frost says in stanza two that he wished he could travel both paths. Which shows that he is not discerning between right and wrong, but between two life or vocational decisions. The first path is well traveled, indicating drawing attributes like ease, wealth, and fame. The second, however less traveled, it the one he picks. Frost saw something attractive in the second path, hidden in its grassiness; something that would actually fulfill him in life, despite walking alone. Frost says that throughout life there will always be decisions to make that will lead a person

Today is full of decisions to be made. Each decision has more than one path, and the one not chosen can never be taken. It is forever lost to us, no matter how much we may want to change the path we have taken. In the poem, "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost shows us a point in his life where he has to make a decision. He sees two paths of life to go down, and while one is taken by many, and the other is less trodden, as if very few have wandered down it.

The poem is about a traveler who had to choose two diverging roads in the woods which is a symbolism of two different directions someone is forced to choose in life, the major theme the poem brings is the theme of making choices in life. The poem therefore seeks to reflect the dilemma people face in life as shown in the statement;

There were many hints in the second and third stanza that give us an idea of how identical and equal the two roads (choices) were, and why it was such a hard decision to choose one over the other. In stanza two, line six, it indicates “Then took the other, as just as fair,” and later that stanza on line ten, it states, “Had worn them really about the same.” To add on, in stanza three, lines eleven and twelve, it reads, “And both that morning equally lay” as well as, “In leaves no step had trodden black.” Terms such as same and equally help reinforce the idea of the two roads being undistinguishable, and the four phrases together show evidence that Frost is comparing two identical “roads” or choices. At first the tone of the writer was of apprehension and doubt. This is because he is uncertain of the consequences for each road or choice, and is unsure about what is at the end of the road. Stanza 1, lines 4 and 5 read out, “And looked down one as far as I could/ To where it bent in the undergrowth.” This is why the tone in the beginning was of uncertainty. The verses are saying that the traveller was eager to look down one of the roads to see where it leads, but was not able to as the road took a turn (“To where it bent in the undergrowth”). This shows where his apprehension and doubt comes from as he does not know where each choice leads, and on top of that, they are

Published in 1916 Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is one of his most well-known and universally liked poems. The poem describes a woodsy path where the speaker approaches a fork in the road ahead. Robert Frost uses an expanded metaphor to reveal the decision making process. Unlike this poem, people would not read an essay on how to make decisions without scoffing or forgetting. “Poetry is the only history of the human heart.”

“The Road Not Taken” was written by Robert Frost in 1916. It was a literary work that displays the way in which Frost saw the world around him. His writing style allowed him to express his feelings towards his environment in a way that others could comprehend. Frost begins the poem describing a stroll through the forest. However, a conflict arises: there are two paths in which he can take. He immediately sets the scene of this poem through his vivid imagery in the first stanza. “Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both” the reader is immediately faced with the image of a forest with yellow trees at a fork in the road. It supplies the us with vital information such as it being a month in Autumn with trees that have traded their green leaves for yellow. This use of imagery is to exemplify a point in life, Autumn can draw a connection with being mature and experienced, but also beginning to reach the points of being elderly at the time of winter. This can tie into the conflict that Frost faces in that there are two paths to take “and sorry I could not travel both” . This shows he wishes he had the time to experience both of these paths. This fork in the road symbolises

The beginning of Frost poem talks about the coming to the diverging roads. This is simple enough. “And sorry I could not travel both;”. Frost wants to travel both roads so he could decide which to take. This is the same experience everyone has when faced with a

Choosing the right path is hard when there is a lot at stake to lose. Sometimes doing what is best for you may hurt the ones you love. It is sometimes necessary to take a chance and choose the riskier path to see what is behind the next bend, or corner. The poem, “The Road Not Taken” describes a person having a hard time choosing what path to take. Robert Frost elicits the central idea, theme, meaning, and how the speaker came to his decision by the use of metaphors describing the want for his readers to think through the hard decisions in life. One decision in life can make you or break you. It is all on how a person approaches the situation.

The poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost is about the “roads” and different paths we take in our lives. Frost wrote about a traveler who had to chose between two roads. He had to decide if he wanted to go down the well used or less used path. In the end, he went down the less used path. The theme of decision making and choices is shown in this poem. I think that this is a way of describing the choices we make and how much a simple choice can affect our own and others’ lives.

Have you ever chosen what seems to be the perfect path in life, and yet later came to regret it feeling remorse in the thought of what could have been? Profound poet Robert Frost depicts this dilemma in his poem “The Road Not Taken." "The Road Not Taken" is a narrative poem consisting of four stanzas of iambic tetrameter and was published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval. In this poem, Robert Frost uses title, imagery, and theme to complicate and lead the reader to unknowingly misunderstand the poem. Through careful explication of these elements of Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” one may discover the true meaning to the ironic and trivial poem that has endured the many generations of poetry: that no matter what road you travel down in life, the key is to never look back.

Some of my decisions may bring me to good places, while others may lead me to bad places. In some of my decisions I might have to give up something I love to go to a place that is uncertain. But I learned from the poem The Road Not Taken that you may want to take the path that everyone else is taking, but you should not. The path less traveled is most likely the better path to take.

Symbolism is a feature that poetry could not exist without as it is a main feature in the author portraying a story. Colors in a poem could symbolize something new and shiny or they could also symbolize something faded and worn. In the story “The Wizard of Oz” the “yellow” brick road is a path that the characters are facing. They color yellow carries much weight on the way the reader portrays they journey the character is about to take. Going down a road symbolizes choice. In Frosts story there are two roads which symbolize choices that may involve conflict or dilemma. In this poem the reader gets the impression that the character is facing two fates based on the path she takes. The two paths are further described when the author says “And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black”. The color black symbolizes death which the reader could interpret that the character may be facing death. While there are choices in the paths that the character may take there is still the thought of the “unknown” destiny of each of these paths. Looking further into the symbolization of the writing the reader sees that the character is facing conflict with the choice of paths to take. The poem begins to give the impression that character has already made a choice, as mention is made of the character being on one path and opting to stay on that path for another day knowing how one may

The techniques used in the poem by Frost are symbolism and tone. Tone in literature often conveys an attitude toward the person addressed. Tone isn 't an attitude in a poem it makes an attitude clear to us. Tone is a choice of certain words instead of others, the picking out of certain details. (Pg 423 Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing Compact Interactive Edition)