Themes In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

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,

First, my thought is the two roads were not actually roads but choices for this person: live or die. “and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one

The poem is about a traveler who is walking in the woods, but comes to a halt where the road splits into two. He then has to choose which road he will pursue further, so he looks down each road as far as he could. The traveler realizes the two roads are identical and worn equally. Once he chooses a road, he tries to convince himself that he will come back one day to travel the other, knowing he will be unable to. In the last lines Robert Frost states that when he retells the story he will say that he took the road less traveled by.

One way how Frost shows that someone who leaves the path of tradition has new choices is through symbolism. This first line of the poem shows symbolism where it says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both” (Frost 1-2). With these two lines, the author begins saying right away that there were two different paths and he could only choose one. The way that Frost wrote these first two lines make the two paths a symbolical choice, either one path can be traveled by or the other, not both. Frost also uses one of the paths to symbolize the influence of tradition on a choice, which is symbolized by the worn and clean pathway. In lines four and five from the second stanza, it says, “Though as for the passing there / Had worn them really about the same” (Frost 9-10). Frost is saying that many people have passed through that same way, that it had already been worn down, this is symbolism that same choice had been taken so often it was now a tradition. Throughout the rest of the poem, Frost establishes the theme that making new choices can be affected by tradition.

The poem, The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost is about someone who is trying to decide which road to take, the one everyone uses or the one that is less used. In the end, the person decided to take the road less traveled and says the outcome made all the difference. This poem is a metaphor that teaches you to not always make the easiest choice or the one everyone else does. To me, this poem means that in life you may have many different choices for a situation and you can either make the choice that’s simple and you can see the outcome or you can take a more adventurous choice. In the poem, the person decides to choose a more adventurous path and appreciates the outcome.

There are many challenges that one faces in life. Trying to determine which path to take is not always an easy decision to make. In “The Road Not Taken,’’ Robert Frost uses conflict, imagery, and metaphors to illustrate the importance of making decisions and choosing one’s own path, even if it is not always the most popular choice. Sometimes, taking risks can be rewarding and scary at the same time.

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” has been examined time after time by teachers, professors, students, and even those willing to go even farther for entertainment but many people evaluate the poem in their own ways. There are the scholarly who delve deep into the mysteries of Frost’s poem and their critique containing a broader range of vocabulary. There are also the people who understand the meaning beneath Frost’s poem and seek to educate those who do not understand but by using easier vocabulary. Finally, there is the mainstream culture that uses the poem with their own meaning without properly reading “The Road Not Taken” and analyzing the actual theme of the poem.

In “The Road Not Taken”, we see the narrator, Robert Frost, comes upon a fork in the road while walking through the yellow wood. He takes a while and thinks about both paths and decides that each path is equally often taken and they both catch his attention. After choosing one of the roads, the narrator tells himself that he will come back to this fork one day to try the other road. But, he realizes that this is highly unlikely that he will ever will come back to this specific point

In the “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost the last line says, “And that has made all the difference” (Baym. Nina, and Robert S. Levine p.736). To a person that has never read this poem they probably would be lost and confused as to what was just stated, but it is all about how you take it. The great thing about poetry is when you read it you can take away from it what you want. Everyone thinks and feels differently when they read poetry, and that is why I have chosen a poem by Robert Frost called “The Road Not Taken”. I chose to write on poetry rather than a short story, because a in a story you have to take away what the writer has intended for the reader to get from the story. Poetry can have multiple meanings depending on the reader, and what they feel from reading the poem. The Road Not Taken has been my favorite piece of poetry throughput this whole class, because it has such an important meaning no only to life, but specifically has a huge impact on my life. In this essay I am going to break it down into 3 parts that I thought were important to be discussed throughout this critical essay. First I am going to talk about the history content of this poem, second I am going to discuss the symbolism, and lastly the cultural context.

Initially, Robert Frost’s complication of “The Road Not Taken” begins with the title of the work itself. Often mistaken for The Road Less Traveled, the title is undoubtedly ironic to the actual facts written in the poem. For example, the title suggests clearly that one road faced has been worn, and the other not traveled. However, the poem clouds the meaning of the title. As he stands carefully stripping the paths of their qualities, he must discern between the first and the latter; the speaker gazes down the second path and announces:

     In his celebrated poem "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost describes the decision one makes when reaching a fork in the road. Some interpret Frost as suggesting regret on the part of the traveler as to not choosing the path he forgoes, for in doing so he has lost something significant. Others believe he is grateful for the selection, as it has made him the man he is. The diverging roads are symbolic of the choices society is faced with every day of life. Choosing one course will lead the traveler in one direction, while the other will likely move away, toward a completely different journey. How does one know which is the right path; is there a right path? The answer lies

Phaedrus said the following quote: “Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.” What he said applies to Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” as poems are not that straightforward. The poem seems to be about a person walking into a woods and coming across two paths, but that is not the case. Underneath those pretty words lies an ironic theme about choices based on the poem’s setting, symbolism, and syntax.

The title, “The Road Not Taken”, symbolizes the decision that he must make to take a path throughout life that no one else has or would choose to take. The majority will always

As much as he strains his eyes to see how far the road stretches, eventually it surpasses his vision, to the point where he can not see where the road will lead. It is the way that he chooses here that sets him off on his journey. The traveler "then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better claims" (stanza 2, line 1). What gave off the better claim is that "it was grassy and wanted wear" (stanza 2, line3). Obviously he wanted the path with less wear because the majority of the other people took the other path therefore calling it "the one less traveled by" (stanza 3, line 4). The fact the traveler selected this path over the more traveled one, indicates the type of personality he has. It is one that likes to be a leader and not a follower. This individual's personality is the type that likes to explore and expand beyond it's limits. His experimenting personality noticed the leaves that covered the ground. His decision was made on which path he would take when he made the statement since the time they had fallen "no step had trodden black" (stanza 2, line 7). Perhaps Frost does this because each time a traveler comes to this point they have to make a decision, something new, somewhere they have never been before. He expresses the desire to travel both paths by saying "I kept the first for another day" (stanza 2, line 8). However the speaker realizes his decision is a permanent choice, "knowing how way leads on to way"

This poem has a calm and collective narration and is spoken by the traveler, who is talking with himself trying to decide which road is the better choice. In the introductory line, Frost introduces the diverging roads, which are his main metaphors because it suggests that the traveler must make a decision. “And sorry I could not travel both”(Frost,Robert.) reveals the traveler’s grief of not being able to travel both.