The Regretful Traveler in Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken

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 Road Less Traveled by Robert Frost is a piece about a traveler who is walking through the woods and comes to a fork in the road. He contemplates which path to take and eventually takes the road that looks to him as if it is less traveled. In the end, he looks back at his choice regretfully. The message was that sometimes in life people need to make choices, but when they reflect back on the choices made, they might need to justify their choices. The speaker uses the metaphor of having to chose a path to take on a road to having to make a decision in life. Rhyming techniques and metaphors attribute to the meaning of the poem, as well. He uses repetition to convey feeling and restate the message. All of these devices add to the message of the importance of making choices in life.

Why does the title emphasize the road not taken? The emphasis on “the road not taken” is Frost’s way of making us think as we read this poem that no matter which way the speaker chose to go a road would always stay not taken. The speaker intended to complete his journey on the chosen path, then at another time go back, and take the other direction.

Life is difficult because no one can be sure if the choice they make will actually lead the outcome they wished for. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, one of the most recognizable poems in American literature, speaks to choices people face in their life. The speaker has to make a right choice for him, that will lead to the outcome of being what he really wants to be. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost uses symbolism, imagery, personification, and metaphor, to explain its theme that choices made by the one's strong wish of what one really wants to be, will ultimately lead to the desired outcome.

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

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

Discovering more of Frost's past life, it's no surprise that most of his poems revolve around the five stages of grief and loss. In understanding the process of grief , the poem "The Road Not Taken" seems to implement the stage of acceptance. In the first stanza, we are approached with two decisions "in a yellow wood", yellow meaning intellect, energy and wisdom . While Wood meaning tree, implying growth or a rapid increase in something. Tree's usually turn yellow in the fall, the season fall meaning death or dying, typically referring to a tragedy. Already knowing a positive decision will be made based on a rapid increase in death, we then turn to the next turning point "Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for the passing there had worn them about the same...".

So I decided to write an explication essay on the poem “The Road Not Taken”. The poem is by Robert Frost and it tells the story about a man who is thinking about something he had done before. Even though what he did wasn’t looked as being good or bad, it was indicated the decision he made had an outcome that caused a shift in his life.

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.

In this poem, I believe the theme is that you have to jump at an opportunity when you get it, or you may never get that opportunity again. Moving on to the tone of the poem, I believe that it is wistful, and that the speaker might be looking back on his days, and realizing that he taking the other road might have made all of the difference in his life. There is very good diction in this poem, as some words express Frost’s feeling more than other’s would’ve. For example, in the line “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” (1), Frost really emphasizes the two roads separating from each other. In another line “In leaves no step had trodden black” (12), trodden is a more appropriate than another word such as crushed or pulverized, because it is the past form of trod, or to step in something, and gives an image of human feet stepping on the freshly fallen leaves.

?The Road Not Taken? was structured by Frost to form four quintains. The majority of the lines contain nine syllables. This structure is maintained through out the poem. The stanzas are arranged like that of a thought. One continues to undermine the other, much like decision making. Our first thoughts are always second-guessed by our second and so forth until we make our final decision, which cancels out all that was thought before. This is what Frost manages to do in the arrangement of his stanzas.

"The Road Not Taken" was written with standard, simple diction. The most complex word used is "trodden"(12). The majority of the lines contain nine syllables. This structure is maintained throughout the entire poem. The stanzas are arranged like that of a thought. One continues to undermine the other, much like decision making. Our first thoughts are always second-guessed by our second and so forth until we make our final decision, which cancels out all that was thought before. This is what Frost manages to do in the arrangement of his stanzas.

Throughout the poem, Frost’s use of tone holds a large impact on the meaning of the poem. If the tone of the poem is misinterpreted, the entire mood of the poem is altered. The tone is recognized before the poem even begins: through the title “The Road Not Taken,” Frost imposes the idea that the speaker makes a decision and second guesses himself or herself. In addition to the title, the speaker says in the first

Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken” describes a traveler facing a choice, he can either choose the road not taken, or he can choose the road most traveled by. He does not know where either road might lead, but in order to continue with his journey, he can pick only one road. He analyses both roads for the possibilities of where each may take him in his journey. Frost's traveler realizes that regret is inevitable. Regardless of his choice, he knows that he will miss the experiences he might have encountered on the road not taken. Frost, uses literary elements, such as Denotation and Connotation, Symbolism, alliteration, consonance, and assonance in order to convey massage.

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