Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) is a renowned American poet known for his style and theme of writing. He used colloquial language to express the feelings and thoughts of common people. A prayer in Spring, Fire and Ice, Mending Wall, Birches, Out Out, Nothing gold can stay, and Home Burial are other works by him.
Nature is one of the core themes of Robert Frost’s poetry. His poems reflect upon nature in detail. He interconnects nature and humans to present metaphorical similarities and differences between them.
The road not taken is one of the famous poems by Frost. The poem describes a man’s confusion about opting for a road. Even though at the outset, the readers may feel it like a simple conflict, the poet intensifies the tensions in a deeper sense before making some decisions in life. Elizabeth Bishop’s The fish explores the same theme of innate conflicts.
In the first stanza, the poet emphasizes how important are some decisions in life. The premeditated decisions can sometimes adversely affect life. The unpredictability shadows human life.
The speaker finds two roads and decides to opt for the less-traveled road. He couldn’t find it easily because, “Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay.”
He has no other option but to select one of the roads. He consoles himself by saying ” I kept the first for another day”. He decides to make a second visit to feel the other road. But the poet denies what he stated by indicating the unpredictability of life. He writes ” I doubted if I should ever come back.” The poet indicates the death, as the unwelcomed guest who can turn around the plans.
Poet keeps an optimistic mind at the end of the poem and he believes that he took the road less traveled and he states that his decision had made all the difference in his life.
Robert Frost explicitly states how a decision can impact the fluctuations of life. He values individuality while making important decisions. He warns the individual to bear the pros and cons of their decisions. This poem motivates the readers to reflect and act before making choices.
Read the poem below
The road not taken
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
