Essay on a Road Not Taken

A poem with many meanings???
Take a glimps into my brain and see how I perceive it!

The literary work that caught my interest was, “The Road not Taken”, by Robert Frost (1916). Even though this poem may not affect someone else who reads it, I enjoyed its so much. This poem means different things to each person that reads it. I connected with this poem because sometimes I wonder how my life could have been different had I chosen a different road! When I consider this poem both roads were a lot alike—the speaker seems satisfied with the choice, and knows that leaving the other road for future travel is not possible. The choice is not just about a particular road but about a life path as well. (R. Wayne Clugston, 2011)
I have come to the conclusion that I thought it dealt simply with making a challenging ("less traveled by") choice. However, I now see that it reflects not just on the motive for choosing but on the nature of choice making. There appears to be delight, at least satisfaction, on the part of the speaker at the beginning of the poem, but the "sigh" mentioned at the end suggests that the choice was more complex than it appeared: It reveals the nature of decision making, implying that, at best, it 's a fuzzy process with ambiguous aspects—both at the moment a choice is made and afterwards. In this way, a wise observation is made through the poem, and important life knowledge is gained. (R. Wayne Clugston, 2011)
If I was to look at this same poem with an analytical approach using the reader response approach that I would say that this poem caught my imagination because I can actually picture myself on that path and then emotionally connect with the writer because I too reminisce on ways my life could have been different. If I look at it from a Formalists view, the narrator comes upon a fork in the road while walking through a yellow wood. He considers both paths and concludes that each one is equally well-traveled and appealing. After choosing one of the roads, the narrator tells himself that he will come back to this fork one day in order to try the other road. However, he realizes that it is unlikely that he will ever have the opportunity to come back to this specific point in time because his choice of path will simply lead to other forks in the road (and other decisions). The narrator ends on a nostalgic note, wondering how different things would have been had he chosen the other path. Either way you have to conclude it is an excellent poem that will always mean different things to different people.

REFERENCES:

Frost, R. (1916). The road not taken. Mountain interval. New York: Holt.

R. Wayne Clugston, Published by Bridgepoint Education, Inc., 13500 Evening Creek Drive North, Suite

600, San Diego, CA 92128, Copyright © 2010, Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

References: Frost, R. (1916). The road not taken. Mountain interval. New York: Holt. R. Wayne Clugston, Published by Bridgepoint Education, Inc., 13500 Evening Creek Drive North, Suite 600, San Diego, CA 92128, Copyright © 2010, Bridgepoint Education, Inc.