ipl-logo

Themes In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

858 Words4 Pages

Often people come to a fork in their lives that demand a decision. Unfortunately, the decision may not be easy to make even when evaluated closely. Robert Frost the author of “The Road Not Taken” intelligently emphasizes using theme, conflict, setting, mood, clever narration, and symbolism to express that making decisions is inescapable, a path can be researched thoroughly but is unknown unless it is traveled. This poem reveals the difficulty of decision-making as well as the human nature when confronted with conflict. Robert Frost develops a theme in “The Road Not Taken” that is relatively confusing simply due to being a short poem that causes readers to perceive the concept differently depending on their worldview. For example, is Frost angry with his decision or enthused in selecting the less traveled road. Arguably, the poem stresses the human instinct of making decisions as well as emphasizing the lasting effects of a decision. Frost seems to be representing a decision in his life, possibly his own but it is not clear. The irony is the double perspective of deciphering the best metaphorical route to take. The setting is clear in the poem. Frost literally describes the setting of the poem, a yellow wood where two roads meet and the route which the roads travel are not able to be viewed. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…looked down as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth”. Literally, a simple description, enough for readers to visualize the scene. Frost

Show More
Related

  • Donald M. Murray's The Stranger In The Photo Is Me

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Road Not Taken” is a renowned poem by a famous American poet containing a message about life’s choices that is familiar to most people. Donald M. Murray uses the notoriety of the poem’s message to his advantage by alluding to it. In doing so, he emphasizes the similar message of his essay about how innocence causes blind decision making and the way in which people look back on those

    Read More

  • Saturday At The Canal Poem Analysis

    1035 Words  | 5 Pages

    Poetry is a universal form of art. People belonging to different cultures have their own forms of expressing poetry. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” and Gary Soto’s “Saturday at the Canal,” demonstrate two of the many styles of poetry. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” symbolizes an individual’s decisions. The factors leading up to that decision, as well as the consequences that follow, are always unknown, as elaborated in the poem.

    Read More

  • The Summer I Turned Pretty Poem Analysis

    915 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” the short story, “The Reunion, and the novel, The Summer I Turned Pretty authors show how characters come of age through their own actions by making decisions and psychology or emotional revelations. In the poem “the Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, the main character has to decipher two roads. The two roads have different outcomes, eventually chooses the harder path and resulted his/her best decision. The narrator sees a fork in the road.

    Read More

  • Death Of A Salesman Comparison Essay

    598 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, is father is unsupportive and wishes that Biff would follow in his father’s footsteps, rather than making his own path. Similar to the idea of making choices on what path to take for the future, is a poem called The Road Not Taken. This poem perfectly depicts imagery on how one chooses a path to take. One can either choose the worn down path, the path which majority will take, or they can

    Read More

  • Extended Metaphors In The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

    1032 Words  | 5 Pages

    During a poetry unit, many high school students have read the words, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” These are the opening lines to “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, a famous poem included in his collection Mountain Interval. The poem starts with the narrator walking in the woods and seeing two roads split from each other. He has to decide which road to take since this decision will forever shape him as a person. The speaker must recognize what can be gained and lost by each individual road and the choice to follow it.

    Read More

  • Thesis Statement In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

    778 Words  | 4 Pages

    Matthew Ferguson English 102 Professor June 7, 2015 The Road Not Taken Thesis Statement: We come to countless decisions in life, and there are issues we have to let chance take command. I. Introduction a. Thesis Statement i. Robert Frost ii. Lyric poem iii. Choosing the road II.

    Read More

  • Road Not Taken

    994 Words  | 4 Pages

    The poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost was about a decision. Two inviting roads existed in front of the speaker, but he could only choose one to travel in the rest of his life. No one knew which road was better or what’s waiting for him in the future, there seemed plenty of imaginary spaces left to the audiences. However, instead of focused on the importance of his finally choice: the road taken, more attentions was given to the given up choice: the road not taken. The writer’s opinion was explicitly showed in the title ‘The Road Not Taken’; which meant from the very beginning it was a poem about lost, not gain.

    Read More

  • Metaphors In The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

    1036 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses beautifully crafted metaphors, imagery, and tone to convey a theme that all people are presented with choices in life, some of which are life-altering, so one should heavily way the options in order to make the best choices possible. Frost uses metaphors to develop the theme that life 's journey sometimes presents difficult choices, and the future is many times determined by these choices. Throughout the poem, Frost uses these metaphors to illustrate life 's path and the fork in the road to represent an opportunity to make a choice. One of the most salient metaphors in the poem is the fork in the road. Frost describes the split as, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both (“The Road Not Taken,” lines 1-2).

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Robert Frost And O Captain My Captain

    853 Words  | 4 Pages

    When reading the poems “The road not taken” by Robert Frost,and “O’Captain,My Captain” by Walt Whitman it is evident that both have a great deal of distinctions, as well as commonalities. The first poem,“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is a symbolic story of a young man discovering his path in life. “The Road Not Taken” begins during Autumn, in the woods. The speaker,a young man, takes a stroll along a road. Eventually,he reaches a point in which the road diverges into two.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Road Not Taken

    1777 Words  | 8 Pages

    There will come a time in every person’s life where he has to make a decision that could alter his life forever. In fact, this exact situation may occur multiple times in his existence. In trying to make the right choices, a person might weigh both options and take into account all the possible effects and arguments for each. For example, when he was growing up, Robert Frost would take strolls with his friend, Edward Thomas, who would constantly face the struggle of choosing the right path and would always worry about whether he made the right decision. In his poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Frost portrays this relatable clash of choices.

    Read More

  • Robert Frost Poetry Analysis

    797 Words  | 4 Pages

    Other events that may have influenced him to write poems the way he does are, visiting different places and things. When he moved, he went to different colleges and got different experiences to write poems. In Frost’s three poems, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (“SBW”), “The Road Not Taken” (“RNT”), and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (“NGS”), there are both similarities and differences in form and style, theme and meaning, and tone and mood. First off, in the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, the form of it is a traditional form. Next, the style of the poem has rhyme scheme, repetition, and metaphors.

    Read More

  • The Road Not Taken Argument

    1267 Words  | 6 Pages

    However the author expressed himself by speaking about the road that he took, but the poem is called the Road Not Taken, Could it be that all this time Mr. Frost was speaking about the road he didn 't take? An article called "The Poem Everyone Loves And Everyone Gets Wrong" talks in behave of the poem 's title and give you fact of how the author came about the poem. The article states how the poem was originally called Two Roads. Frost then wanted to challenge readers and ask them self question as of what was the poets ideas, what did the author want to tell the readers.

    Read More

  • The Road Not Taken Compare And Contrast

    626 Words  | 3 Pages

    Brown. Two poems, “Choices” by Nikki Giovanni and “Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, is about facing decisions they must overcome. After lots of error and thought, they come to an impactful conclusion. Both narrators’ reflections on choices demonstrates how they are tricky to make but result in confidence and a further understanding, however, in contrast each are facing different types of decisions and outcomes;similarities are emphasized when both make their choice and learn from the experience, differences are shown through the perspective of each narrator’s situation. Both poems, “Choices” and “There

    Read More

  • Psychological Approach In The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

    740 Words  | 3 Pages

    The scientific study of the mind of a persona provides readers with a new key to the understanding of character. There are those who say that critics using the psychoanalytic approach treat literature somewhat like information about purchasers in therapy. Actually, I tend to believe that psychological approach is the best method for analyzing "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. I have tried to examine, what are the obvious and hidden motives that cause character 's behavior and speech? How purposeful is this information with regard to the character 's psychological condition?

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

    1010 Words  | 5 Pages

    The poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost states that in life we come upon many decisions, and there are points where we have to let fate take the lead. “The Road Not Taken” uses two paths as a symbol of a life decision. To understand this poem you have to have understanding of life’s meaning. The author helps us better understand the message by his use of tone and literary devices such as metaphors and symbolism. In this poem we come to realize that life is a combination of decisions and fate.

    Read More

More about Themes In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Open Document