ENG 125: Introduction to Literature
Instructor Shawn Mangerino
April 12, 2014
The Road Taken Literature is the expression of thoughts, ideas, or feelings someone may have and can either be written or spoken. Often times we become part of the literature in a way to try to understand what the message is that the author is trying to provide to us. The literary work that I have chosen was a poem written by Robert Frost in 1916 titled, The Road Not Taken. There were a few reasons why this piece of literary work captured by interest and the first was that in High School we spent a week provided our analysis on this piece. It caught my interest based on the genre. Poetry is a type of literature that is open to interpretation and there is truly no right and wrong answer so it gives me the opportunity to analyze it without there truly being a right or wrong answer, I would have to back up my opinion with facts. What also caught my attention was the use of tone, symbolism, and imagination. My feelings on the tone over time have changed and I feel that the tone is more depressive. I can apply what I feel the meaning of the poem which to me means the journey we take in life and the choices we make and how we look back at them. Secondly the use of symbolism can be seen throughout the entire poem and can be applied to everyone's life. Imagination can be tied with the symbolism, Robert Frost use of imagination gives the poem meaning and allows us to engage in identify with his meaning is and is trying to portray to us. One of the analytical approaches in Journey into Literature written by Clungston (2010), is a reader-response approach. It is a way to find a personal link with the poem but there is more to this approach, there are a few questions that we need to ask in order to develop a critical analysis of the work. What captured your imagination? Was it a feeling, an emotion, a curiosity, or an aspiration? Did it