The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken is a poem written by Robert Frost about a traveler through the woods. The traveler faces a fork in the road and a hard decision emerges there. The traveler should make up his/her mind about which path to take. The traveler stood a while evaluating the two roads. The traveler can not see where the roads lead because they are wavy and the forest is too dense to see the end of the roads. Finally, a decision is made, and the traveler chooses one path because the two roads were evaluated as equal to each other by the traveler. Thus, the choice was considered a fair one and the traveler hoped that the chosen path is a better choice while at the same time, considering visiting the other path on a different occasion. The traveler doubts those thoughts about revisiting the other path directly. An imaginary scene emerges in the traveler’s mind and the traveler imagines telling this story after ages and the chosen path made the difference. 

The main theme in this poem is decision-making and uncertainty before decisions. This is a simulation of a real-life situation where everyone is put before different choices and decisions in life and they have to make up their mind and decide something about those choices. The two roads represent our available choices while the path that the traveler chooses represents our decisions with all uncertainty in it. Yet, imagining retelling the story of the roads by the traveler represents the consequences or the outcome of our decisions. 

There is a dominant tone of sadness in the poem. Frost, in his poem, develops the matter of which road the traveler should take to become an emotional matter and reflects upon life decisions that can be told in the future. The sadness is illustrated from the very beginning of the poem where Frost describes “a yellow wood” which refers to Autumn. This season reflects the emotional state of sadness. Another interesting aspect of the sad tone is the theme of regret which Frost develops upon later in the poem. That is when the traveler regrets his thoughts about revisiting the other path. Yet, the sadness disappears in the end and an imaginary feeling of happiness dominates instead when the traveler imagines retelling the story as a good story that made all the difference.  

Robert Frost uses metaphors in the poem to support and create imagery in the poem. Generally, the whole poem is a metaphor for a real-life situation when one is forced to decide on several choices and it is often not as easy as it seems. The language in the poem is figurative and extremely symbolic in a way that allows the readers’ interpretations, this is including the message of the poem which is not explicitly stated. For example, the road refers to our life journey while the two paths that the traveler faces refer to different choices in life. Even the crossroads refer to the decisions that one has to make in their life.  

The rhythm in the poem is calm and musical in such a way that creates a musical feeling enriched by the language and all symbolism used in the poem. 

Having read the poem would contribute to a recognizable experience by the reader. That is, it relates to such that everyone recognizes which is decision making and all uncertainty that interconnects with it. Not only the recognizable experience of the reader, but even the emotional aspect that the poem raises about decision making is interesting. That is, Frost at the end of his poem raises an aspect that is against the herd culture by symbolizing the road that the traveler chose to be as less walked by others. 

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

This line contributes to the challenging feeling and one’s view on everything. Not necessarily all choices that most people make are the rational ones nor are they to favor before other choices. Every case is so unique that it should be evaluated! 

Nostalgic feelings are relevant as well in the poem when Frost describes retelling the story to others as a positive one “ages and ages hence”. In one way or another, this can be interpreted as an implicit statement about not regretting the decision that the traveler made. In this way, Frost could take the reader through an emotional journey from introducing a sad atmosphere to shifting to regret as dominant while finishing with positive thoughts. Furthermore, the anonymous traveler can relate to everyone as he or she represents every person before the decisions and choices that they have to make. This anonymous person is also the speaker of the poem. The speaker narrates the poem and is not only there as an outsider observing the events. This gives the reader a feeling of listening or reading the speaker’s experience. 

The main conflict in the poem starts when the traveler faces a crossroads and has to make a decision about which path is to be taken. The peak point is when the traveler makes up his or her mind about which path to choose while this conflict is solved when the outcome of this decision does not become a factor of regret by the speaker.