In the poem “The Road not Taken,” Robert Frost tells the story of a man looking down two diverging roads. On the surface the story is simply about deciding which road to take, but the deeper meaning is a life lesson about making choices. Frost portrays the theme of making choices in life with the use of imagery, tone, and symbolism. Imagery is very important in “The Road not Taken.” Robert uses imagery in the poem to paint the picture of the woods and the diverging roads. The paths are pictured as grassy, filled with undergrowth, and worn. Without the description of the forest and paths, the meaning of the poem would not make sense. He is making the decision of which road to choose, and he shows it is difficult to choose a road because they are “just as fair.” Decisions in life are often difficult to make because the right choice is not always clear and Frost portrays that lesson with the imagery. There is also imagery of sound used when Frost feels he should “be telling this with a sigh.” This shows the reader that he is thinking about the decision he has made, wondering if he has made the right choices in life. This use of imagery leads to Frost use of tone. …show more content…
All throughout the poem he is comparing the two roads, trying to make a decision. After making a decision he feels he should “be telling this with a sigh,” meaning that he is wondering if he choose the right path. He wonders if choosing the the path less taken was that right choice, and what would have happened if he would have chosen the other path. Andrew Spacey believes that the tone is similar to mine, one of meditative (Spacey). As the person is staring at the two roads, he is weighing the pros and cons of the two choices. The speaker thinks solely on which path is the best choice, finally deciding on the one less
"The Road Not Taken" is one of the number of Frost's poems that has endures through the years. Frost is well known for his reflective and philosophical nature within his poems. "The Road Not Taken" is both about actual roads as well as paths in life. The first person narrator of the poem describes his decision-making process as he takes a walk or hike in the outdoors. The narrator literally comes to a point in his journey where the road he walks splits; his most important choice for his current journey, as well as the entire journey that is his life comes to a crucial juncture. The poem and the author intend for the reader to engage with the experience of making choices in life. Readers may consider that the everyday choices made in life have literal, direct, and immediate results, yet each of the small choices additionally
The poem “The Road Not Taken” is about how the author himself has come to a split in a path while walking in the woods without a map. The season is fall, and the leaves are turning red and yellow. He isn’t sure which way he should go, and he wishes he didn’t have to choose and could go both ways. He looks down one path as far as he can see, but he then decides to take the other. The path he decides to take is not quite as worn as the other one, the leaves are freshly fallen with no foot prints or tracks. The author reflects on how he intends to take the road that he didn 't take next time, but he doubts that he will ever come back. Instead, in the future, he will be reminded of how his decision was ultimately the right one. I decided to adapt this poem into a drawing because I feel like it can be interpreted in various ways and has a lot of hidden meanings. This poem demonstrates that everyone needs to choose their own path and not anyone else’s. This theme was communicated with Frosts usage of symbols and imagery.
The speaker decides on a path. In lines 16-20, Frost writes “I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. As I mentioned earlier, the speaker sighs in line 16, wishing he could have taken both roads. He opted to choose the grassy road that wanted wear (line 9). The speaker reflects back on this decision, noting that his choice has made all the difference in his life. To me, this last line reflects contentment and gratification in his earlier life choice.
Frost uses imagery that appeals to sight to convey the idea of making a choice. When Frost says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Line 1), he is appealing to sight. The reader can then picture two roads and can conclude the roads are symbolic for choices as the poem continues. Frost also says, “Though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same” (lines 9-10). This quote appeals to sight, and you can picture the two roads, which are symbolic for choices, and you can see that the two are exactly the same, giving the reader the idea that the traveler is making a blind decision. The imagery helps the reader get a better grasp on what is going on in the poem, and then they can look deeper to find tone. If the reader looks at that, they can infer an indecisive tone, based off of the traveler’s inability to make a decision. Frost also uses imagery that appeals to sound to support the idea that traveler is unsure of the decision he made. Frost is displaying the traveler’s uncertainty of his decision when he says, “I shall be saying this with a sigh” (line 16). Frost adds this so the reader can hear the traveler’s sigh, which then alludes to the traveler’s regret and uncertainty of his decision. Frost then writes, “and I- I took the the one less travelled by” (lines 18-19). The dash there is indicative of a sigh, which appeals to sound. The sigh, once again, alludes to uncertainty of the traveler’s decision, and it hints that the traveler would like to make the decision again, thus allowing the reader to conclude the traveler is uncertain of his choice. This, in turn, allows the reader to infer an unsure tone from the poem. When we consider the use of all of the imagery, appealing to both sight and sound, the theme of the poem becomes apparent. The use of imagery that shows the
In 1916, Robert Frost wrote the very famous poem titled “The Road Not Taken.” In the poem “The Road Not Taken,” author Robert Frost uses metaphors, tone, setting, and subtle symbolism to portray the overall theme of evaluating life’s tough decisions. While this poem could be interpreted very simplistically or literally, it is actually full of many different metaphors. These metaphors emphasize Frost’s outlook on decisions that one must face throughout their life. “Two roads diverging” is a metaphor for two choices presenting themselves in one’s life.
Imagery and Symbolism are two figures of speech that are used in the poem “The Road Not Taken.” Robert Frost uses imagery for the reader to visualize the path, the yellow wood, the undergrowth, and the divergence. He states,
The speaker says that both roads are equally beautiful, and also equally worn. He says he will leave the first path for another day, then admits to himself: “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back.” (14-15) The speaker never fully rules out taking the road less traveled, and never officially denies that he will come back. Yet, he admits to himself that one choice leads to another and most likely he will never journey back to the fork and be faced with the same decision. The speaker anticipates the regret he will feel when “telling this with a sigh” (16) based on his decision no matter which path he takes. But in the last stanza the speaker argues he should not feel any regret because it does not matter either way. The narrator says how he will someday look back and claim "with a sigh" that choosing the "one less traveled ... made all the difference." He knows that he will comfort himself by saying that the choices he has made have lead to the place he is in his life, when, in reality, his position is a combination of his choices and chance. He knows that his choice was really arbitrary, and his destiny will likely not be impacted his outcome either way. In this last stanza, the speaker acknowledges the stereotype of the
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
In fact, it is a poem about the journey of life. The theme in this poem is the choices. The two roads symbolize a person's life, and the narrator's choice about which road to take shows the different decisions that the person sometimes have to make and how those decisions will affect the future. Robert Frost’s contemplative and regretful tone shows us that every decision can actually affect our life. The use of symbolism with the paths displays that it does not matter which way has been taken more but which is the best one for us.
From the beginning of the poem to the end of it, the decision to take that road changes in not only an ironic way, but also a contradicting way, having the reader feel like it was not that big of a decision, to having the
Our route is, thus, determined by an accretion of choice and chance, and it is impossible to separate the two. The poem isn’t giving the reader advice. It does not say, “When individuals come to a fork in the road, investigate the footprints and take the road less traveled by” Frost’s focus is more complex. Moreover, the narrator’s decision to choose the “less traveled” path demonstrates his courage. Instead of taking the safer path that more people have traveled, the narrator prefers to make his own impact upon the world. Nonetheless, when we look closer at the text of the poem, it becomes clear that such an idealistic analysis is largely inaccurate. Next, the poem seems more attentive with the question of how the detailed present (yellow woods, grassy roads coated in forsaken leaves) will look multiple years after he has traveled the path that he chose. The narrator only characterizes the paths from one another after he has already chosen a path and traveled multiple years through life. When he first comes upon the fork in the road, the paths are described as being essentially
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
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
Nature in this poem sets the scene and can hold a metaphorical meaning as well. “TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,” (line 1) sets the scene, the speaker tells the reader the woods are yellow, so we can conclude that the poem is taking place in autumn. This could be a metaphor for the time in the speaker’s life that he is making this decision. The fall of his life when he is beginning to get old.” To where it bent in the undergrowth;” (line 5), the reader finds out the woods must be pretty thick, because the road can disappear in the undergrowth, could represent an aspect of the speaker’s future that he is unsure of.” And having perhaps the better claim,/Because it was grassy and wanted wear”(lines 7-8) the speaker is bias in favor of nature, he thinks one path may be better than the other because fewer people have worn it down. These lines are a metaphor for a decision that is less commonly made.” And both that morning equally lay/in leaves no step had trodden black, (lines 11-12) here the reader sees autumn images continue. It appears that it is morning time. There is a contradiction to an earlier claim that one path is less traveled. The lines tell the reader the leaves have just fallen masking that the path was more or less traveled. Metaphorically this points out there is ultimately no way to tell which choice is
Robert Frost uses a plethora of literary devices to present the idea that humans are the product of the decisions they make. “The Road Not Taken” uses analogy, and an allegorical story where a man is walking down a road and is forced to choose a path to follow. While the poem illustrates a man walking down a road, the actual words of the poem can be translated into a deeper meaning of person being forced to pick between two paths of life. Frost some time to describe the different paths. In the second two lines of the first stanza, the narrator explains that he looked down one path as far as he could, but under growth prevented him from seeing far.