The Problem Of Choice In The Poem The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost
The audience for this poem could be identified as people of all ages, making decisions are a part of everyone’s lives. Due to trends being so easily followed in today’s society, if a reader were to come across this poem the trend would be taking the road that is more traveled. The poem is very relatable to many people in today’s society because it is very common now for people to do what everyone is doing. The author created a clear, precise poem making every line flow with one another, and having a theme that is very easy to tell. In this society, it would not take much for a reader to understand this because everything is put very well together. The author does a great job of being descriptive in this poem. Frost said in the poem, The Road Not Taken, “to where it bent in the undergrowth, Then took the other, just as fair” (Frost,5-6), indicates to the reader that, when settling on a life-changing choice, it is difficult to see where that choice will lead. This leads the metaphor to be switched on. Life offers two decisions, both are legitimate yet the results could be immensely different.
In the poem, the author uses symbolism, setting, and tone to convey the theme of how making important choices can dictate an individual’s life. For the setting for this poem, it could be interpreted as in the fall because of the first line in the poem, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”, (Frost, 1). Another way this line could be intercepted is that some things are changing or may not be going as hoped. For some people fall can be seen as a change in a bad way, and how the season of fall could represent the speaker in the poem is the speaker is getting to that point in an age where there isn’t much time left and is looking back in life. In the poem, the fork in the road would be classified as a metaphor for the choices that were made throughout the poem. The tone of this poem would be reflective and nostalgic because the narrator is thinking back on the choice he made and is nostalgic about the path he did not take. Frost said in the poem “The Road Not Taken” “I shall be telling this with a sigh” (Frost 16), moving forward with the rest of life, the speaker will always tell this story with a sigh of regret. This quote made it easier for readers to figure out the tone, so the author did a good job of expressing his feelings throughout the poem. This relates to people having to make important decisions and reflecting on the consequences of the decisions. The road in the poem symbolizes the journey of life, and when the speakers reach the fork in the road splitting into two paths symbolizes a choice. In the poem, the speaker describes the forest as a “yellow wood”. Yellow can be viewed as a middle color, something in the middle of and uncertain of itself. This sets the disposition of uncertainty that describes the language of the poem.
This poem is an incredible example of how significant a choice can be. It also shows how troublesome making a choice can be. Most of these important choices can be hard to make because there has to be a sacrifice involved. Individuals simply trust and believe the first choice is the right choice, similar to the speaker picking the road less traveled first. Robert Frost, ‘The Road Not Taken’ is progressively symbolic of a decision an individual must make in their lives in an attempt to predict the result before arriving at the end than it is about picking the right way in the woods. Throughout the poem, frost is making it known life is a series of choices. A portion of these choices may, at the moment, may be thought of as not important, while others could be thought of as exceptionally huge. The poem works magnificently to symbolize choice through the two roads.
