The Road Not Taken

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.

In reading Frost’s poem in its entirety, I have concluded that “The Road Not Taken” is a symbolic representation of the choices we make in life. This particular narration symbolically led the speaker down a fulfilling road; however, getting to that conclusion is not so simple of a process. The uncertainty of how the outcome of one decision over the other will unfold brings the speaker through a contemplating process of eradication.

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?

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 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.

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.

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

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.

Robert Frost’s poem,”The Road not taken” was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1915 and included a year later in the little volume entitled Mountail Interval.It is among Frost’s best, most riveting, and most complex and is still quoted by inspirational speakers, writers, commercials, and everyday people. The poem is about making a decision when confronted with two possible choices. Life is not simple; a man is never faced with a choice that just has one narrow path. In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses symbolism through nature to analyze one’s decision-making through life; and the narrator hopes that his choices will not haunt him for the rest of his life. In this paper, I would like to interpret the decision making analysis

Lisa Wingate once said, ‘’The hardest thing about the road not taken is that you never know where it might have lead. The quote means that it is hard to make the decision on witch path to take because they both lead somewhere different and you might not want to go to that different place. This statement is true because you never know what will come before you. Both the ‘’Road not Taken’’ by Robert Frost and ‘’Untraveled Road’’ by thousand foot Krutch supports the statement by Lisa Wingate.

According to Dr. Joel Hoomans, "An adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day." People are granted with free will and numerous choices in life. Robert Frost poem "The Road Not Taken" gives a perfect example of making a choice in one's life and the process someone may go through to making a choice. The poem takes place in the woods with the speaker coming across a fork in the path and only having the option of taking one path over the other. Throughout the four stanzas, the speaker carefully evaluated each path explaining to the reader his perception of both. One path seemingly the most commonly taken route and the other uncharted territory. The overall theme of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" is that at some point in everyone's life, people have to make a choice and decide how they want to move forward in life. Robert Frost use of symbolism and metaphors helped further express the theme of his poem.

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost starts out with the speaker facing a dilemma. He must make a decision about which path to take. Frost utilizes metaphor and tone to develop his theme about having to make decisions in life, whether they be something as major as choosing a career to pursue or something as simple as choosing what movie to see or what to have for dinner. The speaker states, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

The future is determined by decisions that could alter people’s lives tremendously. As exemplified in the poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, choices are not always clear and simple. In the poem, Frost writes about two roads which represent decisions in life. Frost is portraying how a person’s decision can change their path, especially when a change in direction is not expected. Society seems to have an impact on these choices.

The tone of this poem is what makes it so openly interpreted. It can be used as motivation for almost any path one decides to take in life. The verse “Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back” can be related to by anyone who has ever experienced having to make crucial decisions in life. Life is not easy, and it is not worth our precious time to be whimsical in our decision making. Nobody wants to have to backtrack, and this poem portrays that rigorous ‘keep your head forward, shoulders back and your eye on the prize’ mentality that has been part of our culture as Americans for so long. These two very salient lines of the poem also do well to instill an element of mystery and air in the mind of the reader. It is human nature to think what could have been ‘if only I’d done this’ or ‘If that never