The Road Not Taken


The 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 took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.



A poem by
Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Poem Analysis

Introduction

        Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. He started interesting in reading and writing poetry when he was eleven years old and had to move to New England. He was enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892, and later at Harvard, even though he never graduated from that university. His first professional poem, ’My Butterfly,’ was published on November 8, 1894 in the New York newspaper The Independent.  His wife, Elinor Miriam White, whom he married with was a major inspiration in his poetry until she died in 1938. His work is associated with the life and landscape of New England. He is a modern poet. His work is poured with ambiguity and irony. He lived and taught for years in Massachusetts and Vermont. He died in Boston on January 29, 1963.

Discussion

        The theme of the poem is about how human beings are determined by both the choices they face and the choices they make in life. The Road Not Taken is a poem about how to live life meaningfully by making the right decisions and if necessary by doing things differently that most other people do. The poem starts with ‘two roads’ as a metaphor for choices. He can choose either one. The poet also uses ‘to where it bent in the undergrowth’ that shows the obstacle each road faces.  Then, he chooses the path that seemed to be ‘wanting wear’. Yet he doubts himself and weighs whether he should return to a life that most lead or not. In the end he is grateful to have taken that path because it has made the biggest impact. The meaning of this poem really lays in the sentence ‘took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference’ this shows that he is looking back at what he could have done and what would have happened if he had. At the end, the poem tells readers that they can take the easy way out, but it is always better to take the harder choice, the path that is not particularly joyful, because the benefits will come later.

        The poem intends to remind readers about life and its decisions and choices they have to make. It means to say that readers will all have a point in life where they must choose. Thus, readers shouldn’t regret anything and be pressured to make decisions they are unwilling to just because others make those decisions. It also tells that the best way is not always the easiest which means readers have to fight the complications to reach either success or happiness. The poem ends by giving readers a choice between the possibilities that will make all the differences in a good way or bad way.

        The connotations of the poem can be seen as follow: ‘roads diverged’ (l.1) connotes choices to make or paths to take, ‘wood’ (l.1) connotes life, ‘travel’ (l.2) connotes choose or decide or make, ‘traveler’ (l.3) connotes a human being, ‘one’ (l.3) connotes a decision or a choice or a path, ‘it bent in the undergrowth’ (l.5) connotes the obstacle each road or path faces, ‘the other’ (l.6) connotes one of the two paths or choices, ‘grassy and wanted wear’ (l.8) connote less traveled or chosen by, ‘passing’ (l.9) connotes choice, ‘worn’ (l.10) connotes chosen, ‘both’ (l.11) connotes the choices or the paths, and ‘trodden’ (l.12) connotes taken or chosen.

       The denotations are the following: ‘sorry’ (l.2) denotes felt regretful, ‘long I stood’ (l.3) denote spent some time trying to make up his mind, ‘as just as fair’ (l.6) denote likely, ‘perhaps’ (l.7) denotes possibly, ‘though as for that’ (l.9) denote in spite of the fact that, ‘really about the same’ (l.10) denote has almost no difference, and ‘both… equally’ (l.11) denote the two…impartially. 

      Some lines in this poem contain some image: ‘two roads diverged in a yellow wood’ (l.1), ‘because it was grassy and wanted wear’ (l.8), ‘and both that morning equally lay’ (l.11), and ‘in leaves no step had trodden black’ (l.12), they all appeal to our sense of sight. ‘And sorry I could not travel both’ (l.2) appeals to our sense of movement/motion.

       Figurative language can be seen in some lines in this poem like ‘two roads diverged in a yellow wood’ (l.1) that shows a metaphor. ‘And looked down one as far as I could’ (l.4) is a simile. ‘To where it bent in the under growth’ (l.5) is a metaphor. ‘Then took the other, as just as fair’ (l.6) is a simile. ‘Because it was grassy and wanted wear’ (l.8) is a personification. ‘In leaves no step had trodden black’ (l.12) is a metaphor. And ‘two roads diverged in a wood’ (l.18) is a metonymy (it means two choices in life).