Road Not Taken – Robert Frost
The poem “Road Not Taken” is a poem with a speaker that is walking through a forest that has leaves yellow due to the autumn season. As the speaker walks through the yellow forest, he comes across the road that diverges into two. The persona regrets since he could not pass both ways but has to choose one of them. To determine the best route, he stands at the for some time to trace where one of the paths would lead him. The speaker was unable to see the far end of the way since it was bushy and unluckily also had a bend.
The persona says that he leaves the first path with a bend and takes the other one. He judges the second path as being a better option than the first one since it is full of grasses and looks like people rarely use it. The speaker takes the latter route, and he walks through it, he thinks that i nreal sense, the two paths might be having some differences as well as similarities.
The speaker becomes more in thoughts as he remembers that both the paths had leave covers that foot traffic had not worn them too much. He continues to think more and consoles himself that even though he is following the second path, he will come back and follow the first path. A contradiction then pops up in the speaker mind that in life, one path tends to be leading onwards to another one and therefore he would get a chance to walk on the first path someday.
The persona then starts imagining himself in future where he is recounting with a sigh the story about the road in life that he decided to choose. Speaking from his future, the persona talks of how he was tackled with two options in his past where he had to make a wise decision about his life. He says that the road he chose to take is the reason for difference in his life.
The main theme of the poem is choices and uncertainty. In the poem, the speaker is facing a dilemma of making a choice between the two roads on which one to follow. The choices of the speaker are metaphorical; the exact choices that people meet at one time in their life. The experience of the speaker helps the reader explore the choices and what one feels when they face such situation. As the poem begins, the speaker recounts his experience when he is face with the dilemma. The first emotion when the dilemma arises, is sorrow. He is sorrowful because he is one person and cannot travel both the roads at ones. Every choice that he makes would include losing an opportunity to follow the other path and also, he would have to choose without complete information about both roads.
With uncertainty of information that he has about both the roads, the speaker tries collection some information about one of the roads. Seeing a bend on the first road, he faces even much confusion and decides to follow the other road regardless of the less information at hand. The speaker then wisely decides to choose a road that is less trodden even though as he travels he faces some regrets of not following the other road. As the poem ends, the speaker is in the imagination of his far future and sees all the difference brought about the choice he made.
The second theme in the poem is individualism and nonconformity. Two roads come on the speaker’s way as walks through the forest but he decides to choose the less trodden. When the chooses the less worn road, he prefers individualism to conformity. Instead of the speaker clearly stating that the second seemed not having to many travelers, he states that the path seemed “grassy” and it was clear it “wanted wear.”
The primary style in the poem is symbolism. The road symbolizes a life journey that everyone follows towards their future. The forking of the road symbolizes the choices that on faces in life that would bring difference in their lives. The tone of the poem is meditative; the speaker gets stranded while the two choices face him and has to weigh between them.
The central message of the poem is about choices in life. In life, people often face a lot of confusing choices to make. Whenever people are met with confusing choices in life, they have to make decisions on which choice to take. From the fork of the road, it is clear that one can only choose one path but not all of them. The poem significantly focuses on the road less travelled which reciprocates to individuality while making decisions. No one know what the future holds but people only need to be optimistic about the choices they make. The speaker ends the poem in his imaginative future looking at the difference brought by the choice he made.