Preview

Explication Of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
484 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Explication Of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken
The Road Not Taken Explication
Stanzas 1 and 2:
It is evident that the scene in the poem takes place during an autumn setting which is implied when line 1 it states, “TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood”. The “yellow wood” simply means that the leaves are changing colour; therefore, it is autumn. Frost also portrays the narrator as observant and cautious speaking with an almost regretful tone. This can be seen in line 2 where he says “And sorry I could not take both”, the narrator’s observant behaviour is also evident in line 3 and 4 when he says, “And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth;”. The road that branches off in two different ways gives the narrator a difficult time with choosing which way to go and this adds confusion and uncertainty in the atmosphere as well as a calm and reflective mood.
…show more content…

The diction also amplifies the idea of equality within both roads; words include “fair” and “same”. The road is also describe to be well worn meaning that many people have passed by facing the same situation and seemed to have chosen the two paths equally as well. The path is likely to be a symbol of the different choices that a person must make and while both are equal and alike in many ways, it remains a concern to whoever the decision maker is due to the possibility of choosing the worse of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    How would you feel if you have choose between two decisions that might be crucial to your life and put your life upside down?Robert is in a fork in the road he has two decisions which one will he choose?In The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost uses Imagery and antithesis to explain how life is sometimes. Plus being patience and choosing the right decision.…

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” remains one of my personal favorites in spite of many years of literary study. The advice of this poem has helped me to understand that when I choose atypical paths it creates a ripple effect that produces differences so profound I can hardly imagine my life without that nonstandard choice. However, I had to realize on my own that every choice has the capacity to become such a divergence. With this realization comes a certain weight to daily choices, and anything beyond that calls for careful thought and planning. The world is full of uncertainties, but assiduous preparation can produce wise choices that lead to the fulfillment of long term goals.…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the previous verses Frost explains in narrative one road to be the road that the traveler like stated earlier can be assumed to be Frost himself, to be road he will choose. However, that is not the case in that we find that the lyric has changed. Bringing confrontation with the other road to be explained as “having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same”. Frost emotions have changed when he gazed upon the second road. This is what brought the irony of the poem and also shows good use of nominally poetry. Meaning the sectioning a poem to where it was written, putting the poem “The Road Not Taken” into that category. I believe the second verse of the poem grabs the attention of the reader, Frost changing the tone of the poem showing dilemma the traveler faces. This also brings the curiosity of the reader and brings them to make decision themselves of which path they would choose and would the traveler choose the same…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This essay discusses the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. This poem describes a man who is walking in the woods. As he is walking, he finds that the path he is on splits into two roads. He is forced to decide which road to take in order to continue his journey. Throughout the rest of the poem, he describes the experience of his journey. Frost uses many poetic devices throughout this poem. He uses metaphor to describe the road as a part of life. He also uses rhyme scheme to show the important phrases and words to help the reader understand and comprehend the message behind the poem. Finally, Frost makes use of alliteration and similes to draw the reader closer to the text and compare his experience to other occurrences…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Indecision is infuriatingly inconvenient. When someone is certain about something, they can make decisions easily. Through a deconstructive lens, being certain is a privilege in society. Yet certainty can at times be a burden and have unexpected consequences, while indecision can help make better decisions. The Road Not Taken written by Frost was inspired by his friend Thomas and was about indecision and how no matter what path Thomas takes, he will always regret it. Indecision often diminishes confidence, yet sometimes, it broadens a person’s perspective. This depicts that there are no definite lines on what is privileged and what’s not. With this, it relates back to the structure in society. When there are no definite lines, then there is a certain amount of ambiguity and it happens in literature, in people, and in…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The speaker stands at a fork in the road “sorry [he or she] could not travel both” when he or she is forced to choose a path to continue on his or her way to the end of the trail. This “fork” stands for the path of life and each “road” is its own decision. The speaker “looked down one as far as [he or she] could” meaning the speaker tried to predict where the roads would lead him or her, based strictly on what it appeared to be. However despite the appearance of the roads, “the passing there had worn them really about the same,” and both of the “roads” or choices had been made many times. After choosing the “road” and following the path, the speaker looks back upon his or her life and sees “that has made all the difference” or, that his or her choice on that day set the course of his or her life.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frost uses the images presented in the poem in a very involved and general way. The paths and the fork no longer refer to their definitions, but instead as keywords in a description of life. Through the poem, Frost is defining life as a series of decisions. Some of these decisions may, at the time, be thought of as insignificant, while others could be thought of as very significant. Frost argues that a decision's significance at the time is not really important, for any choice will change one's life. Every day, people, including the narrator of the poem, are presented with "Two roads" that diverge "in a yellow wood." These roads are not concrete or physical, but rather represent choices. The fact that one road is "grassy and wanted wear" while the other was commonly traversed shows the reader that some choices require one to choose something that is not commonly sought or to do something…

    • 1092 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In life, we come to the proverbial “fork in the road” and need to decide which lane we will follow. Sometimes we go right, and other times we may go left. In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, he describes the journey an individual takes when deciding which road to travel, and which road he may return to travel another day. In his stanza “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost, p. 1), we can determine that both portray hope and invite us to follow them towards our future. Your option is limited, and coming back to travel the unchosen path may be only a dream. The speaker is leading us down a road to self-awareness, showing us that the path we follow is not reversible, our backward steps are actually…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    --The Road by Cormac McCarthy is by far one of the most arresting novels I have ever read. On the surface, it is a dystopian novel about a very bleak future and the dark underbelly of survival in a true post-apocalyptic environment. But at its heart, it is the story of a man trying to be a “good” father under impossible circumstances.…

    • 1279 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the first stanza, Frost describes how difficult it is to make a decision about which road to choose. He states, "And sorry I could not travel both…" This represents the struggle to make the right decision. The reader senses the traveler's regret. The decision seems impossible, because a person cannot help but wonder about the opportunities that would be missed if they choose the wrong path. In addition, it illustrates the speaker knowledge that in one's lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every path.…

    • 947 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Road Not Taken, the poem by Robert Frost is related to the dilemmatic situation of decision making in human life. To be specific, one’s decision in critical situations transforms one’s life into success or failure. Besides, wise decision at apt situations leads to success in life. But human beings are not ready to take decisions based upon their free will. This creates much tension in future life because false decisions lead to failure, which cannot be changed. In this poem, the speaker faces the same problem faced by human beings for generations. Thesis statement: The symbolic setting, title, content and metrical devices support the poem’s (The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost) overall meaning.…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The text, “The Road Not Taken”, states “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” (Frost 1). This little characteric of imagery tells a whole poem. It tells us that the setting is autumn, because the leaves are changing, and thet the leaves have turned yellow. Without these little descriptive details of the forest and paths , it wouldn’t make sense that the narrator was indecisive about choosing a certain path. In the other text, “ Seasons of Gold” states “The sky fills up with April showers” (Claudia Martell, Nevaeh Bruck, Aaron Grant).…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost was one of the most popular and critically respected American poets of the 20th century. He was a modernist who was skilled at representing a wide range of human experiences in his poems. Three times Pulitzer prize winner and the Congressional Gold Medal recipient, Frost was appointed as Poet Laureate of Vermont in 1961. Readers are likely to interpret his poems in many different ways depending upon their emotional state. Among the three poems assigned for the reading, I was much impressed with “The Road Not Taken” because of its simplicity and meaningfulness.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A road not taken

    • 708 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Robert Frost's poem, the title seems to depict the road as if the road that is abandoned or rarely traveled on by a young adult or of middle age who has the judgment to take on the road less taken. On the fork road, the speaker concludes in choosing the “best path” when they, “...both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black.” which intends to tell the reader that both of the roads are not less traveled by. He then chooses to take the “road less traveled” for the reason that he knows nothing of what lays ahead either road he chooses to take and tells himself that he will later look back on his difficult decision and go back to take the other road but realizes that he will not have the fortuity to do so.…

    • 708 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My whole life I have been told what to do. As a child, my parents had the life they wanted me…

    • 472 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays