Poetry Explication: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Kiara Houston
Ms. Stopka
English 1H, per 5
1/21/14
Poem Analysis/ “The Road Not Taken”
In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost gives his readers a speaker standing at a “fork” in the road- or having to make a decision. Robert Frost uses extended metaphor, irony, and an unreliable narrator to show his reader’s that, when choosing life courses, one must consider where the path is actually going verses from how it may appear. Decisions fill the lives of human beings, and this speaker faces the remorse he holds for the decisions he’s made. 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. The difference in the speaker’s life is said to come from being one to have taken “the one less traveled by”, however in the beginning of the poem, the speaker states that “the passing there had worn them really abut the same.” This means that neither path was less taken, or not taken at all, and the speaker had simply taken a path of life, or made a choice, that had been taken many times before. The speaker then states that he or she will have “kept the first for another day!” Which is the speaker hopefully assuming that he or she will return to see what making the other decision will yield. However, in the same stanza, the
Ms. Stopka
English 1H, per 5
1/21/14
Poem Analysis/ “The Road Not Taken”
In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost gives his readers a speaker standing at a “fork” in the road- or having to make a decision. Robert Frost uses extended metaphor, irony, and an unreliable narrator to show his reader’s that, when choosing life courses, one must consider where the path is actually going verses from how it may appear. Decisions fill the lives of human beings, and this speaker faces the remorse he holds for the decisions he’s made. 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. The difference in the speaker’s life is said to come from being one to have taken “the one less traveled by”, however in the beginning of the poem, the speaker states that “the passing there had worn them really abut the same.” This means that neither path was less taken, or not taken at all, and the speaker had simply taken a path of life, or made a choice, that had been taken many times before. The speaker then states that he or she will have “kept the first for another day!” Which is the speaker hopefully assuming that he or she will return to see what making the other decision will yield. However, in the same stanza, the