Taking The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost major theme incorporated in his work making life choices. For example, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" the persona walking along and coming to a point where he must decide on which two paths to take: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/ And sorry I could not travel both/ And be one traveler, long I stood" (Frost 1-3). This evidence proves the persona is not sure which path to take, but he knows he will soon have to make a decision. Also, which path he take may determine ways that will change his life forever: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--/ I took the one less travelled by,/ And that has made all the difference. (Frost 18-20). The persona has chosen the one path to travel, he knows years from now his one

In the poem Frost makes it evident that he feels that making a decision is not an easy thing to do. This is very true when we make a decision that is significant. In the poem Frost states “two roads diverged in a yellow wood/and sorry I could not travel both”. When Frost states this he is saying that

Imagine that your making a decision and you are stuck to choose between two things that could change and impact your life greatly. What would you do? What pathway would you take?

In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost leaves a major theme of making choices. The poem is about a man traveling and he comes across a fork-in-the-road. He must make a decision on which way he will keep traveling. One way seems familiar to him. It is by far the safer and easier route to go down. But that does come with a price. The road has been used a lot and may be more difficult to travel down even though it seems easier. He ends up choosing the road less traveled. It did not seem as convenient at the time but he states that it helped him in the long run. Not only does “The Road Not Taken,” have a theme about choices, but it also holds a theme about choosing the road less taken. Taking chances and choosing the road less traveled can have many benefits in the long run.

The speaker decides on a path. In lines 16-20, Frost writes “I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. As I mentioned earlier, the speaker sighs in line 16, wishing he could have taken both roads. He opted to choose the grassy road that wanted wear (line 9). The speaker reflects back on this decision, noting that his choice has made all the difference in his life. To me, this last line reflects contentment and gratification in his earlier life choice.

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost describes the dilemma in decision making, generally in life each individual has countless decisions to make and those decisions lead to new challenges, dilemmas and opportunities. In Frost’s poem, the careful traveler observes the differences of each path, one is bent and covered in undergrowth (Frost 5) and the other is grassy and unworn (Frost 8). In the end he knows he can only choose one of the paths, after much mental debate he picks the road less traveled and is well aware that he will likely never return to experience the other. By examining Frost 's "The Road Not Taken," we get a deeper understanding of

Frost wrote this poem about how a person took a walk and had to choose one path or the other. Both paths seemed equally worn and leafy. However when looking back later the narrator begins to think that maybe he chose the path less traveled.

The message that Frost is trying to get across is that you have options, and you come to that point in life where you must decide. Frost identifies in his first sentence of his poem that reads, “two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” (Frost) Which means that we come to this “intersection” in life, therefore the human mind tries to look down as far as it allows us. Thus, we need to decide, furthermore act, and when we make a choice, we kind of regret of not taking the other option. Frost’s first stanza says it all; “sorry I could not travel on both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth.” (Frost) Trying to figure out what you will be doing for the next step is life changing.

Though he may want to try it out, he comes to terms with the fact that there is no turning back and that: “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back” (Lines 14,15). With these lines, Frost uses the tone of regret and shows that it is the speaker’s original choice that led him to his own new road. To carry on that tone of regret, in the sixteenth line the speaker states that he: “Shall be telling this with a sigh” (Line 16). By saying this, the speaker unintentionally shows that he is nostalgic on the decision of his path. If he were to be told which path to take, he may not have been in the position of regret. While the speaker was unsure of his road in the beginning, he also ended up being unsure of if he could take the other path later on. Yet again, Frost shows that the speaker had to be self reliant in his decisions, showing that he is alone in the world.

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).

During class, we discussed Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. At face value, the story seems as simple as choosing a walking path. In reality it is a metaphor for all the choices we make in life and find ourselves justifying later as the best

Thoreau believes deeply that one person can make a big difference in one’s own life and, in extension, the world: “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Frost seems to believe that one person cannot even make a big difference in his own life. In “The Road Not Taken” the speaker is almost able to convince himself, at a later date, that he truly does take the road less traveled. His own self-disillusionment and self importance leads the speaker to feel more in control of his life. While Thoreau is actually able to make a significant difference in his life and the way he perceives the world, Frost’s character cannot.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”. These are the words Ralph Waldo Emerson once said. Emerson was an influential writer and poet that is still studied to this day.

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

The road I chose to not take was to go on family vacations in the summer. Had I gone on family vacations I would have experienced more family time, created more memories, and had the adventures of a lifetime with my family. Being able to experience more family time would allow me to make more lasting memories with my grandparents. I could have made family memories with my relatives which could last me lifetimes. The family adventures could have been memorable and possibly sparked a new career interest.