The Road Not Taken
“The Road Not Taken”
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is one of the most misinterpreted poems to this day because a vast majority of people mistake that it means to seize the day and that they are in control of destiny. In reality, the theme of “The Road Not Taken” centers around choice and the outcome of those choices in life. Decision-making plays a major role in life since that’s what constructs life. One choice leads to another and will either have a positive or negative effect in the end. That’s the thing about choosing between two paths down life; there is no knowledge of how each will turn out to be. The speaker of the poem comes across two divided roads in the woods and has a difficult time deciding which to take. He desires to take both roads to see where they will lead him, but, only being one traveler, he can’t. At one point he assumes the second road is better than the other “because it was grassy and wanted wear,” but then realizes that they are both equally the same. Soon enough, he decides to take the second road even though he doesn’t know if it is the right decision and reassures himself that later in life he will come back to take the other one and see where it will lead him. What he almost fails to realize is that he can’t return to this moment in his life to try the other because one road leads to another and he will be too far ahead in life. He then foreshadows and describes that when he is an older man:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
The “I” is repeated and is separated by a dash and a line break. This technique makes the emotion in the speaker’s voice more clear about how he shows regret. He pauses and then lies saying he took the “one less traveled by.” But, he doesn’t take the one less traveled by because it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist because both roads look exactly the same
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is one of the most misinterpreted poems to this day because a vast majority of people mistake that it means to seize the day and that they are in control of destiny. In reality, the theme of “The Road Not Taken” centers around choice and the outcome of those choices in life. Decision-making plays a major role in life since that’s what constructs life. One choice leads to another and will either have a positive or negative effect in the end. That’s the thing about choosing between two paths down life; there is no knowledge of how each will turn out to be. The speaker of the poem comes across two divided roads in the woods and has a difficult time deciding which to take. He desires to take both roads to see where they will lead him, but, only being one traveler, he can’t. At one point he assumes the second road is better than the other “because it was grassy and wanted wear,” but then realizes that they are both equally the same. Soon enough, he decides to take the second road even though he doesn’t know if it is the right decision and reassures himself that later in life he will come back to take the other one and see where it will lead him. What he almost fails to realize is that he can’t return to this moment in his life to try the other because one road leads to another and he will be too far ahead in life. He then foreshadows and describes that when he is an older man:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
The “I” is repeated and is separated by a dash and a line break. This technique makes the emotion in the speaker’s voice more clear about how he shows regret. He pauses and then lies saying he took the “one less traveled by.” But, he doesn’t take the one less traveled by because it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist because both roads look exactly the same