“We should take risks and face challenges during the
span of our life.” Discuss with reference to the poem, “The Road Not Taken” written by Robert Frost.
The following
facts will help you write an effective answer. You are kindly informed to study
them carefully and attend the lecture. We hope to write a model answer.
Robert
Frost-The Road Not Taken
"The
Road Not Taken" is an ambiguous poem that allows the reader to think about
choices in life, whether to go with the mainstream or go it alone. If life is a
journey, this poem highlights those times in life when a decision has to be
made. Which way will you go?
The
ambiguity springs from the question of free will versus determinism, whether
the speaker in the poem consciously decides to take the road that is off the
beaten track or only does so because he doesn't fancy the road with the bend in
it. External factors therefore make up his mind for him.
Robert
Frost wrote this poem to highlight a trait of, and poke fun at, his friend
Edward Thomas, an English-Welsh poet, who, when out walking with Frost in
England would often regret not having taken a different path. Thomas would sigh
over what they might have seen and done, and Frost thought this quaintly
romantic.
In other
words, Frost's friend regretted not taking the road that might have offered the
best opportunities, despite it being an unknown.
Frost
liked to tease and goad. He told Thomas: "No matter which road
you take, you'll always sigh and wish you'd taken another." So it's ironic
that Frost meant the poem to be light-hearted, but it turned out to be anything
but. People take it very seriously.
It is the
hallmark of the true poet to take such everyday realities, in this case, the
sighs of a friend on a country walk, and transform them into something so much
more.
All of
Robert Frost's poems can be found in this exceptional book, The Collected Poems, which I use for all my analyses.
It contains all of his classics and more. It's the most comprehensive
collection currently on offer.
"The
Road Not Taken" is all about what did not happen: This person, faced with
an important conscious decision, chose the least popular, the path of most
resistance. He was destined to go down one, regretted not being able to take
both, so he sacrificed one for the other.
Ultimately, the reader is left to
make up their own mind about the emotional state of the speaker at the end. Was
the choice of the road less travelled a positive one? It certainly made
"all the difference," but Frost does not make it clear just what this
difference is.
The Road
Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
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.
What Is
the Main Theme of "The Road Not Taken?"
The main theme of the "The
Road Not Taken" is that it is often impossible to see where a
life-altering decision will lead. Thus, one should make their decision swiftly
and with confidence. It is normal to wonder what the outcome would have been if
the other road, the road not taken, was the road chosen. But to contemplate
this hypothetical deeply is folly, for it is impossible to say whether taking
the other road would have been better or worse: all one can say is that it
would have been different.
What Is
the Central Message of "The Road Not Taken?"
"The
Road Not Taken" suddenly presents the speaker and the reader with a
dilemma. There are two roads in an autumnal wood separating off, presumably the
result of the one road splitting, and there's nothing else to do but to choose
one of the roads and continue life's journey.
The
central message is that, in life, we are often presented with choices. When
making a choice, one is required to make a decision. Viewing a choice as a fork
in a path, it becomes clear that we must choose one direction or another, but
not both.
In
"The Road Not Taken," Frost does not indicate whether the road he
chose was the right one. Nonetheless, that is the way he is going now, and the
place he ends up, for better or worse, was the result of his decision.
This poem
is not about taking the road less travelled, about individuality or uniqueness.
This poem is about the road taken, to be sure, as well the road not taken,
not necessarily the road less traveled. Any person who has made a decisive
choice will agree that it is human nature to contemplate the "What
if..." had you made the choice you did not make. This pondering about the
different life one may have lived had they done something differently is
central to "The Road Not Taken."
The
speaker opts, at random, for the other road and, once on it, declares himself
happy because it has more grass and not many folk have been down it. Anyway, he
could always return one day and try the 'original' road again. Would that be
possible? Perhaps not, life has a way of letting one thing leading to another
until going backwards is just no longer an option.
But who knows what the future
holds down the road? The speaker implies that, when he's older he might look
back at this turning point in his life, the morning he took the road less
travelled, because taking that particular route completely altered his way of
being.
What Is
the Mood and Tone of "The Road Not Taken?"
Whilst
this is a reflective, thoughtful poem, it's as if the speaker is caught in two
minds. He's encountered a turning point. The situation is clear enough - take
one path or the other, black or white - go ahead, do it. But life is rarely
that simple. We're human, and our thinking processes are always on the go
trying to work things out. You take the high road; I'll take the low road.
Which is best?
So, the
tone is meditative. As this person stands looking at the two options, he is
weighing the pros and cons in a quiet, studied manner. The situation demands a
serious approach, for who knows what the outcome will be?
The
entire speaker knows is that he prefers the road less travelled, perhaps
because he enjoys solitude and believes that to be important. Whatever the reason,
once committed, he'll more than likely never look back.
On reflection, however, taking
the road "because it was grassy and wanted wear” has made all the difference
all the difference in the world.
What Are
the Poetic Devices Used in "The Road Not Taken?"
In
"The Road Not Taken," Frost primarily makes use of metaphor. Other
poetic devices include the rhythm in which he wrote the poem, but these aspects
are covered in the section on structure.
What Is the Figurative Meaning of
"The Road Not Taken?"
Frost uses
the road as a metaphor for life: he portrays our lives as a path we are walking
along toward an undetermined destination. Then, the poet reaches a fork in the
road. The fork is a metaphor for a life-altering choice in which a compromise
is not possible. The traveler must go one way, or the other.
The
descriptions of each road (one bends under the undergrowth, and the other is
"just as fair") indicates to the reader that, when making a
life-altering decision, it is impossible to see where that decision will lead.
At the moment of decision-making, both roads present themselves equally, thus
the choice of which to go down is, essentially, a toss-up–a game of chance.
The
metaphor is activated. Life offers two choices, both are valid but the outcomes
could be vastly different, existentially speaking. Which road to take? The
speaker is in two minds. He wants to travel both, and is "sorry" he
cannot, but this is physically impossible.
What Is the Literal Meaning of
"The Road Not Taken?"
Literally,
"The Road Not Taken" tells the story of a man who reaches a fork in
the road, and randomly chooses to take one and not the other.
What Is the Symbolism of
"The Road Not Taken?"
The road,
itself, symbolizes the journey of life, and the image of a road forking off into
two paths symbolizes a choice.
As for
color, Frost describes the forest as a "yellow wood." Yellow can be
considered a middle color, something in-between and unsure of itself. This sets
the mood of indecision that characterizes the language of the poem.
Frost
also mentions the color black in the lines:
And both
the morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden
black.
Clearly,
this is to emphasize that both roads appeared untouched, not having been
tarnished by the foot of a previous traveler. The poet is the first to
encounter this dilemma.
What Is the Point of View of
"The Road Not Taken?"
The point of view is of the
traveler, who, walking along a single path, encounters a fork in the road and
stops to contemplate which path he should follow.
How Do the
Two Roads Differ in "The Road Not Taken?"
The two
roads in "The Road Not Taken" hardly differ.
The first
road is described as bending into the undergrowth. The second road is described
as "just as fair," though it was "grassy and wanted wear."
At this, it
seems the second road is overgrown and less travelled, but then the poet
writes:
Though as
for that the passing there
Had worn
them really about the same,
And both
that morning equally lay
In leaves no steps had trodden
black.
So,
again, the roads are equalized. Yet, as if to confuse the reader, Frost writes
in the final stanza:
I took
the one less traveled by,
And that
has made all the difference.
With that, we are left to wonder
how Frost knew the road he took was the one less traveled by. But Frost likely
left this ambiguity on purpose so that the reader would not focus so much on
condition of the road, and, instead, focus on the fact that he chose a road
(any road, whether it was that which was less traveled by or not), and that, as
a result, he has seen a change in his life.
