The Road not Taken by Robert Frost

The Road not Taken by Robert Frost

Introduction

It is not easy to make a choice and people come across with this perplexing situation many times in their lives. Sometimes the choices are obvious while at many times it becomes difficult to choose the best one. The poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost also illustrates the very circumstances of a man's life. The poem was written in 1916 and was published in his poetry collection “The Mountain Interval”. Since then it has become one of the most discussed and debated poem of English Literature. Its meanings are often misinterpreted and confused with a phrase, “the road less travelled”.

Discussion

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference” are the famous last lines from Robert Frost's much debated and discussed poem “The Road Not Taken.” Anyone who read this poem is touched by its presentations as its meanings strikes the chords of their hearts. The theme and symbolism featured within has been the subject of a wide variety of interpretations, however, most insist that this poem symbolizes the incessant curiosity that resides within human nature. No matter whichever choice is taken in life, one will always wonder what possibilities the other choice may have held. Within the four stanzas of “The Road Not Taken” the speaker narrates coming across two roads while walking through the woods one autumn morning. The symbolic value of the forking roads is fairly easy to grasp, representing the choices that one comes across throughout the journey of life. Regretful that he can choose only one, the speaker is careful in his choice of road, “long I stood and looked down one as far as I could/ to where it bent in the undergrowth”. This is the point which initiates discussions and debates about the poem.

In this poem the poet had to take a crucial decision about choosing one path at certain stage of the life. While travelling through dome path he came across a fork. This poem portrays the indecision faced by the narrator at the deciding fork in the road; he has to decide which road to take. The "road" used as a metaphor by Frost for the choices we make in life (Fagan, pp. 374). As the narrator decided which “road” to take, he realized ...