The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

The analysis of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost has been up for debate since the poem release in 1916. It is known to be one of the most frequently misinterpreted poems of all time, and even Robert Frost himself has said the poem is “tricky” to comprehend (The). When analyzing this poem many readers tend to focus only on the last lines of the poem and get caught in a trap of selective-interpretation. Quite a few people after reading Robert Frost’s poem firmly conclude that this poem is about non-conformity and individualism, however, that is not the case. Robert Frost’s poem is meant to be analyzed line by line for a complete interpretation. Readers can conclude that the poem represents making choices in life, but that is not the

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.

“The Road Not Taken” written by Robert Frost uses several poetic devices such as imagery and personification to emphasize how indecisive Frost is about his decision on which road he should take. “The Road Not Taken” is about how the narrator chooses a path that he was once confused and worried about but over time become content with his final decision.

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'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 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.

In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, Frost shows the everyday human struggle to make a choice that could change the course of one’s life. In his poem, a person has the choice to take one road or the other. One road is worn out from many people taking it, and the other is barely touched, for fewer have taken that road. Throughout the poem, the speaker learns that just because so many other people have done one thing, or walked one way, does not mean everyone has to. Sometimes you just have to go your own way.

Frost lead to the belief that, “Two roads diverged in yellow wood” expresses indirectly that the season is Fall and makes the theme seems as if “he was falling apart”.

Equating life with a journey is one of those most popular metaphors throughout literature. Going through a physical journey is full of twists and turns, much like personal exploration that leads to finding a person’s identity. In “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, there is a definitive feeling that can be interpreted as remorse and nostalgia. Frequently, in literature regarding journeys, authors tend to use characters and objects as metaphors in order to show the reader that they are looking back, perhaps either at their life as a whole or defining moments. However, in this poem, Frost indicates that the speaker is standing at the figurative fork in the road and intends to one day look back on his life’s choices.

While there have been a number of iconic poems throughout the centuries, one that continues to receive recognition and mention is “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. In this poem, Frost examines the consequences that result from each choice we make in life. There is a sense of ambivalence that comes with making a decision, especially if both available options appear sound. Consequently, within his poem, Frost examines the relationship between progress and the sacrifice of possibilities. He also provides insight into an individual’s thoughts both prior to and following the decision making process. In this particular poem, Frost is discussing a literal decision between two paths in the woods. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the

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.

In the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, the narrator approaches “two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” both looking fairly equal to one another (Frost 1). One path expresses slightly more wear in the grass than the other. Frost tells how the narrator traveled the road less taken, making all the difference in the end. Life is about decisions; some may be challenging, others simple, and sometimes life changing. My challenging decision took me down a rocky path my senior year deciding a career. There are numerous careers and colleges to choose from; however, a student can only choose one. Unlike the majority of my classmates, my career ideas switched, what seemed like, every month.

“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