“The Road Not Taken: Psychological Criticism”

Introduction

Robert Frost's apparently simple, almost naïve, tone of voice and use of language in the poem 'The Road Not Taken, has a great complexity that is not only astounding but flies off the page. Frost might be said to be one of the great poet-philosophers, as the poet, like the philosopher, is a type of truth seeker. Much of the Frost's poetry conveys philosophical views of life, death, and the unknown. He shares a desire to find meaning where it is at best obscured (Winters 48 569). His poetry is an expression of artistic will - the willing of understanding when there is little that can be fully understood, including Frost himself, and this poem is no exception.

Thesis Statement

The poem is titled 'The Road Not Taken' rather than 'The Road Taken'; in emphasizing this negativity, Frost makes us aware that he is writing his poem from the perspective of nostalgia; psychologically speaking, he is creating a rivalry between his pride at having chosen the way he has lived, and his regret at not having explored some easier avenues of existence. He does so by constructing a situation where the paths he hasn't chosen are clearer and more explicable than the grassed-over, less-traveled ways he has chosen to tread. This rivalry is left unresolved, although given that the last word falls to the pride, one reasonably assumes that Frost is attempting to make peace with his regrets.

The inter-vibrancy of the poem The Road Not Taken bewilders many readers, and no whole account of the auditory inspiration at the poem's end has been extroverted, in spite of a good deal of work on the part of critics to direct bleak irony regarded in those lines. The repetition of 'Two roads diverged' is the reminder of the ...