Have you ever stopped and asked yourself “Did I make the right decision in my life?”? Most would answer yes to this question. Although some, would hide behind pride and rant on about their triumphs, or how they made just enough right choices to justify all the wrong. However, those same people lay awake when the morning dew is fresh, still counting the ways they may have been able to do better in the choices they made many years ago. Either way, if you admit it now or in the wee hours of the night, like most people, you will come across this question at least once in your life. Robert Frost was able to grasp this raw, vulnerable life changing moment in the palm of his hand. Then he beautifully laid it out in the form of words in the narrative poem “The Road Not Taken”. Frost is able to take you back to a time when you have been faced with a life-changing decision. Then, causing you to ask yourself “Did I make the right choice?”, “What caused me to choose the way I did?”, and “How did my choices long ago affect my life today?”. This is more than a poem, but rather a meaningful life lesson.
By using metaphors Frost is able to show his readers a time of having to decide between two major life events. Thus, relating to his readers on a more personal level. He does this by speaking of a traveler coming to a fork in the road of a wooded area. Right from the beginning you can tell how the traveler is curious of both roads set out before him. He looks at one long and hard as far as
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
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.
How can an author effectively convey a universal message to the broadest audience possible? Simple. The author must simply create a completely impartial narrator, devoid of sex, status, or age. The Road Not Taken is a poem told by an impartial narrator who has come to a crossroads in his/her life. The crossroads is represented by a forked path that leads through a forest. The setting is also impartial; the forest is anytime and anywhere the reader desires it to be. The narrator is forced to make a life-decision, thus changing the course of his/her life forever. Symbolism and imagery are used effectively to reinforce the main theme of the poem.
Robert Frost was born March 26, 1874 at San Francisco, California and died January 29, 1963 at Boston, Massachusetts. Frost was an educator and poet. He is widely known for his poetry; some of Frost’s famous work includes The Road Not Taken, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, Mending Wall, and Out, Out─. Out, Out─ tells a story of a young boy cutting wood to help provide for his family. He then acquires an injury on his hand by the saw. The boy ends up dying due to the severity of his wound. His family returns to their duties. This poem uses many elements to emphasize death. Robert Frost uses the poetic elements of imagery, figures of speech, and symbolism to illustrate the theme of death in the poem Out, Out─.
The existence of poetry as an artform predates literacy itself. Over the course of history, poetry grew from a verbal form of art, existing mainly in religious hymns, to becoming the universal “language of the heart”. The work of William Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe, some of the most notable poets of history, has resonated with generations of Americans. Although they lived in a Pre-industrial world, their work remains powerful because the themes expressed in their artwork can still be applied to modern society. On the contrary, protruding among this group of ancient poets is Robert Frost, whose modern work remains just as powerful, shaping generations through his questions of existence, and depiction of loneliness in an indifferent universe. One of Frost's most celebrated poems: The Road Not Taken, is influential not only in the literary world, but also within American culture. The poems subsequent ripple through American life is analyzed by David Orr In his essay The Most Misread Poem in America. Here, Orr argues that the misread of The Road Not Taken magnifies the underlying issues in society’s understanding of both Frost and poetry as a whole.
Diverging being the key word in this line because it suggests that the traveler must make a choice. Line two the speaker expresses his grief of not being
In the poem, Frost indicates that he made the wrong decisions and took the wrong path’s by sarcastically using “making all the differences”.
Robert Frost in his poem,” The Road Not Taken,” implies that decisions made today will later affect the outcome of your tomorrow, and though the paths may be similar in structure the results may drastically differ. He develops this idea first by explaining the situation he is dealt while he is in the woods, and by telling the reader of how he wishes he could travel both paths but unfortunately he cannot; second, he describes the similarities between the two paths that are before him; he begins to describe the second path as “just as fair” , but at the same time the speaker tells the reader that one path was clearly the better-looking option of the two; third, by describing the likelihood of his returning back to the path he had not chosen as
Frost’s poem is about life, especially making difficult decisions. People find themselves in some dilemma and have to choose between two things that both could end up being good or bad all the time. In this poem,
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both.” This is the first line of the opening stanza of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.” The traveler in this story has been walking down a path and come to two diverging roads. Thus, creating a situation in which the traveler must make a decision. This poem is often misinterpreted by readers and critics. The poem is entertaining, but it is not as deep and profound as many people believe. I interpret the poem as a reflection of the uncertainties of life, but in a humorous way.
Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Frost influenced my thorough love of different styles of literature, particularly poetry. To the masses, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Frost only share job titles, but the two poets share many similarities within their writing. Personally, I read pieces from both authors over the course of my schooling experience. I admired Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” from a young age, and that particular stole my heart since the first read. “The Raven,” became one of my favorite poems further down my schooling career, with its clear ominous tone that symbolizes much of Poe’s writing. Frost’s and Poe’s works may not seem similar, aside from the section in which their books reside within a library, but their work resembles each other’s quite well. Frost’s writing serves as a better introduction to poetry due to his easily relatable themes, his background connects to everyday audiences, and his use of modern language.
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.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “Death, be not proud” by John Donne are two poems with different meanings but share one of many of the same themes. Although the poems share different meanings as a whole, the reader can conclude the same common theme from both of these poems. Even though the reader may think the poems lack a same common theme, the theme is revealed by the end of both these poems. These two poems share the same theme of hopes and dreams. As the reader explores the same common theme of these two poems, the literary devices of personification, imagery, alliteration, metaphor, and irony can be seen throughout these poems as well.
The great poet Robert Frost was asked if the poem, The Road Not Taken, was about an experience in the poet 's life: He answered that a poem is never about an experience, it is an experience. If you succeed in determining exactly what Dylan meant in “Mr. Tambourine Man,” you will have succeeded in destroying it. This is the song that marks the change where Dylan moves on from the public world of overt political protest songs to a focus on the individual consciousness, which I’d like to argue is another more subtle form of protest. “Mr. Tambourine Man” is rich with expressions of emotion. With a new personal approach to songwriting, Dylan takes feelings that he was perhaps dealing with at the time, absorbs them, and artfully crafts them into mysterious lyrics that are simply enamoring. The song has a bright, expansive melody accompanied by Dylan’s jaunty vocals that is beautifully mesmerizing. The song is about the feeling of being trapped in a miserable existence and the desperate yearning for freedom from an individual’s own personal hell. It is about the universal need to escape one’s troubles, no matter what the means are, as long as it allows you to forget, deal, and hopefully transcend. It has become famous in particular for its surrealistic imagery, influenced by artists as diverse as French poet Arthur Rimbaud and Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. The lyrics call on the title character to play a song and the narrator will follow. Interpretations of the
Robert Frost reflects that poetry “begins in delight and ends in wisdom….It runs a course of lucky events , and ends in a clarification of life—not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are found on, but in a momentary stay against confusion” (931). His poem “The Road Not Taken” is a clarification of life. This paper will analyze and evaluate the formal elements of “The Road Not Taken” and consider how these elements work together to fit the author’s purpose and clarification about life.