The Road Not Taken
The Path
It is a fact of life that decisions must be made in order for a person to progress through life. One cannot simply make the decision to sit in an infinite state of neutrality. The simplest daily processes are decisions that have been made, whether they are conscious decisions or unconscious decisions. It does not matter if the decisions are right or wrong. That in itself is not important because right and wrong is entirely subjective. The only important motion in play is that a decision has been made.
Robert Frost captivates with his poem “The Road Not Taken.” Frost, in few words, brings to light the decisions that all functioning humans will be faced with. When Frost says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” (1) these roads clearly represent two different decisions to be made. Does it have to be two roads? It, in fact, does not. The roads could be a complicated web of an interstate system; however, only one road can be taken. There is no reverse, and there are no U-turns. There is simply a single path to be taken. How does one make a choice without knowledge of where that path leads? This is where a person’s ability to make a decision and calculate risk comes into play.
As human nature would have it, a person can and will analyze the outcomes of their paths before them, but it is often be fruitless. The fact is that in life there are not always clear cut paths. Frost says, “long I stood and looked down one as far as I could” (3-4). Here the traveler is attempting to see the outcome without taking a step forward. He knows that once he starts down the path there is a chance he will never be able to return from this decision. So he searches far but to no avail, the path curves out of his sight. Life’s most difficult decisions will not give away even the slightest clue of their possible outcome regardless of the amount time spent analyzing them.
As the traveler analyzes the paths before him, it is as if he is searching for the path with signs of wear
It is a fact of life that decisions must be made in order for a person to progress through life. One cannot simply make the decision to sit in an infinite state of neutrality. The simplest daily processes are decisions that have been made, whether they are conscious decisions or unconscious decisions. It does not matter if the decisions are right or wrong. That in itself is not important because right and wrong is entirely subjective. The only important motion in play is that a decision has been made.
Robert Frost captivates with his poem “The Road Not Taken.” Frost, in few words, brings to light the decisions that all functioning humans will be faced with. When Frost says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” (1) these roads clearly represent two different decisions to be made. Does it have to be two roads? It, in fact, does not. The roads could be a complicated web of an interstate system; however, only one road can be taken. There is no reverse, and there are no U-turns. There is simply a single path to be taken. How does one make a choice without knowledge of where that path leads? This is where a person’s ability to make a decision and calculate risk comes into play.
As human nature would have it, a person can and will analyze the outcomes of their paths before them, but it is often be fruitless. The fact is that in life there are not always clear cut paths. Frost says, “long I stood and looked down one as far as I could” (3-4). Here the traveler is attempting to see the outcome without taking a step forward. He knows that once he starts down the path there is a chance he will never be able to return from this decision. So he searches far but to no avail, the path curves out of his sight. Life’s most difficult decisions will not give away even the slightest clue of their possible outcome regardless of the amount time spent analyzing them.
As the traveler analyzes the paths before him, it is as if he is searching for the path with signs of wear
Cited: Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." Poetry Foundation. N.p.. Web. 17 Aug 2013. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173536>.