Robert Frost’s, “The Road Not Taken”, addresses challenges every human must face. The poem describes a man in the woods who has come upon two trails. The man is faced with a decision. The poem explains that the paths look very similar, but each leads to a different outcome. The poem is a direct represents facing or two choices. Choices define people. Frost sheds light on the difficulty and curiosity that comes with making decisions and how people will allow pre-determined regret to affect the choices they make. (Secondary source) The traveler studies the paths, looking down each as far as he can. After noticing the trails are quite similar, he takes one. He states that he would save the other trail for another day, yet he knows that trails lead to more trails, and he doubts that he will ever come back. The poem closes with the man imagining himself looking back on his decision with a sigh, …show more content…
When Frost writes, “And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could” (lines 1-3). It describes a problem all people must face: making decisions without knowing exactly where those decisions will lead. Much like the man in the poem, people want to know as much as possible about both options; still, however, knowing they can only choose one. Zeelenberg concludes, “... people are motivated to make choices that shield them from threatening feedback on foregone courses of action. Thus, people are motivated to avoid post-decisional regret. This regret aversion has a profound influence on their decisions, because the possibility of regret is anticipated and subsequently taken into account when making decisions” (101). This means that people use the fear of regret to determine their choices. They want to learn everything they can about the two choices so they do not end up regretting the choice they made. They want to make the safest choice for
In “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, we are given a piece of art that simply will leave you clueless unless, you understand the pain and frustration the man is going through; when choosing what route he feels will give him the most joy. In the poem a man is walking through the woods and he comes upon a fork. He who wants to take both roads chooses the route that he feels is traveled less on. Little does he know that both road have been equally traveled on. He who travels on the route that has fresher leaves lies to himself, by convincing himself that he will come back and take the other route. Though it was a very stressful and a hard decision for the man to make, many people are put into very similar situations like in John Updike’s A and P and as well as in James Joyce’s Eveline. Both Sammy and Eveline find it troubling to make a decision that will change their life completely.
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.
Robert Frost’s tone in the poem is thoughtful and indecisive. The tone in this poem played a big role in helping people grasp the poem’s text. While reading the poem, I learned that the traveler, who I assume is Robert Frost, is uncertain of which path to go through. I could clearly see that this is a decision that he is putting a lot of thought into. Since his tone is so contemplative, I learned that this is a life decision, and not just a choice between two
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both." (Frost 1) - in life, there are many "paths" or choices; ways one can go in life. He explains that many people go one way, perhaps because others went that same way. "Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear" (Frost 1) In this, Frost is explaining that many people went one way while he wanted to travel the less worn one, because it might hold beautiful views – good experiences that no one else had gotten the chance to learn from. Life, he explains through this metaphor of travel, is full of choices. And going down one path may change ones life. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I- I took the one less traveled by; and it has made all the difference." (Frost 1) Robert Frost continues to teach an important life lesson to readers around the world through this extended metaphor
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)
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” both portray weighing of choices in life. The former is about youth and experiencing life and the latter is about old age, or more probably, an old spirit wearied by life. In both poems the speaker is in a critical situation where he has to choose between two paths in life. In “The Road Not taken” the speaker chooses the unconventional approach to the decision making process, thus showing his uniqueness and challenging mentality while in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” the speaker seeks a life without any pain and struggle but at the end, he has to comply with social obligation, which reflects his responsibility towards the society.
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
From the poetry devices, we can see the literariness and the meaning of the poem. The choice that the persona made in front of the two diverging roads impacts the rest of his journey. Same as the persona, people are just like that traveler, traveling on the journey of life. The journey consists of many roads. Different choices on different roads lead to different destination and impact the rest of
The author’s tone in the poem plays an immense part in helping the reader understand the poem. Throughout the poem we learn that there are two paths to take and the traveler is uncertain about which to choose. Moreover, we learn that choosing the path is actually a life decision and not just a choice between two roads diverging in the autumn woods. Towards the end of the poem, Frost’s tone changes to regret, Frost was once said about “The Road Not Taken,” “No matter which road you take, you'll always sigh, and wish you'd taken another way.” Robert Frost’s change of tone throughout the poem helps the reader fathom what the author is trying to say.
Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken” describes a traveler faced with a choice of which one of two roads to travel. He knows not where either road might lead. In order to continue on his journey, he can pick only one road. He scrutinizes both roads for the possibilities of where they may take him in his travels. 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.
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost uses an extended metaphor of two roads to develop the theme of the hard decisions in life. One example of this is, “And be one traveler, long I stood” in (Frost 3). That means that the author is a traveler with a hard decision to make, also meaning he stood for a long period of time thinking about his decision. Another example is “Through as far that passing there, had worry them really about the same.” (Frost 9). One last example is, “Two roads diverged into in a wood and I took the road less traveled by.” (Frost 18.) Meaning, instead of taking the road that everyone else traveled he took the one less traveled. You’re going to have hard decisions in life, but sometimes dare
In the first line, Frost introduces the elements of his primary metaphor: the diverging roads. The speaker expresses his regret that "[he] could not travel both" (line 2). The choice is not easily made since "long I stood" (line 3) before coming to a decision. In an attempt to make a choice, the traveler examines the path "as far as [he] could" (line 4), but his vision is limited because the path bends and is covered "in the undergrowth" (line 5). Thus, indicating that although he would have liked to acquire more information, he is prevented from doing so because of the nature of his environment. In lines 6-8, the speaker is still unable to decide between the two paths since "the other, [is] just as fair" (line 6). He indicates that the second path is a more attractive choice since "it was grassy and wanted wear" (line 8). Nevertheless, by the end of the stanza, he remains ambivalent, even after comparing the two paths, for each was "really about the same" (line 10). Neither path has been traveled lately. In the third stanza, the speaker makes his decision, trying to persuade himself that he will eventually "come back" (line 15) to satisfy his desire and curiosity to travel both paths. However, deep down, he admits to himself that
“The Road Not Taken,” written by Robert Frost, discusses a traveler who has to make a choice between two roads. In the first stanza, the traveler remembers standing at an intersection of two roads. Indecisive about which road to take, he seems to believe that one of the roads would be more beneficial to him (Lee 5). In stanza two, the narrator refers to the traveler’s unexpected decision to take the other road by giving details of it. In addition, the narrator compares the two roads and points out their similarities. In the third stanza, the author highlights again the resemblance of the two roads by saying the traveler wishes to return to the other path the same day. He also recognizes that he would possibly not come back. Similarly, stanza four visualizes the traveler’s future, where he is still questioning the other path because he says that the path he is choosing is less traveled than the one that he is abandoning (Lee 5). The narrator refers to “individualism” as the major theme of the poem because the traveler is alone and has to make a difficult decision on his own. Frost also said that the tension in the poem is based on the traveler’s interaction with nature. He has a sense of wonder at the beauty of the natural world as he is searching for his own place within nature’s involvement. The title of the poem “The Road Not Taken,” assures autonomy of choice. Most readers fail to understand this initial expectancy of literally
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/And sorry I could not travel both" (1-2) is the first depiction of indecisiveness within the poem. There are two possible paths, and the narrator cannot decide between them. "And be one traveler, long I stood/And looked down one as far I could" (3-4). In this passage the narrator tries to identify the end of each path in order to come to a conclusion, but
Robert Frost ‘s “The Road Not Taken” the author describes an internal conflict with the protagonist in the poem being in the woods, when two different paths emerge for him to take. The paths are described as looking the same “Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same “() himself there and then hastily chooses a path. The path could be taken quite literally because he describes how the paths look physically. Upon further reading the poem takes on a quite metaphorical approach with the author having two decisions in front of him and the one he chooses will set up a chain of events in his life. The driving force in the poem is laced in a sense of regret for the future because he wonders what would have happened if he took the other road.