The Road Not Taken

There comes a time in every person’s life where they must make a decision between two equally good options, whether it be choosing which house to buy or which university to attend after high school. The poem “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost is about that time in a person’s life, and the indecisiveness that comes with it. Through the use of indecisive punctuation, similar rhyme scheme, and the number of stanzas, Frost is able to represent the challenges that encompasses picking one option over another and the regret that comes with the loss of the other option.
To begin, the poet uses indecisive punctuation to create a sense of uncertainty when it comes to decisions that will make an impact on one’s life. After choosing a certain path, and looking back on his decision, Frost says: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—/ I took the one less traveled by” (Frost 18-19). The hyphen and the repetition of the word “I” shows that he looks back on his decision with regret, due to the fact that he may never be able to travel the other road again. Secondly, semicolons and commas are also prevalent throughout the poem and create a pausing effect, which provides
By using similar rhyme scheme, the poet is able to represent that the choices presented to him are equally important. Both paths may lead to a better quality of life, but one will always be more appealing than the other. The rhyme changes in each stanza, but keeps the same “ABAAB” pattern. The differences in these rhymes represent the small differences between the two choices that leads a person to choose one option over the other. The repetition of the similar rhyme scheme in each stanza also represents how the other choice will always be in the back of the mind, causing one to remember the other option and think about how life might be different had it been chosen