Analysis: The Road Not Taken
Erin Mills
Mr. Currin
English 102-9
9 April 2015
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost While a short piece, Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is a beautiful literary masterpiece, though it is often misinterpreted. Many readers believe that the focus of the poem is “taking the road less traveled” – refusing to conform, asserting bravery, and directing your own future. However, line 11 says, “And both [roads] that morning equally lay/in leaves no step had trodden black.” Neither of the roads had been traveled, which reshapes the meaning of the entire poem. Rather than about uncustomary, courageous, life-changing decisions, “The Road Not Taken” is about how life is full of chance, lost opportunities whether for good or bad, and future reflection on the …show more content…
Unknown paths in the woods symbolize life’s decisions and predicaments, and thus readers can easily identify with the poem. While we can do our best to make logical decisions, it is often left to chance to determine how the choices we make will affect us. For example, when high school seniors begin searching for a college, they can do their research, make visits, form relationships with people on campus, join clubs and organizations, etc. all in hopes of succeeding, but it is entirely possible that once they actually arrive they will discover that they dislike their chosen major, get a particularly difficult professor, have trouble making friends, and so on. Then, they are left back at the beginning, at the same metaphorical fork in the road, with the opportunity to choose a different path, and their second blind guess may or may not turn out the same way as the first. Additionally, we often experience this in our Christian walks. The ways we choose to live lead us to a split between culture and God, and we have to choose whether to remain faithful or to turn. Similarly, the speaker in the poem knew that he had to make the choice between two paths
Mr. Currin
English 102-9
9 April 2015
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost While a short piece, Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is a beautiful literary masterpiece, though it is often misinterpreted. Many readers believe that the focus of the poem is “taking the road less traveled” – refusing to conform, asserting bravery, and directing your own future. However, line 11 says, “And both [roads] that morning equally lay/in leaves no step had trodden black.” Neither of the roads had been traveled, which reshapes the meaning of the entire poem. Rather than about uncustomary, courageous, life-changing decisions, “The Road Not Taken” is about how life is full of chance, lost opportunities whether for good or bad, and future reflection on the …show more content…
Unknown paths in the woods symbolize life’s decisions and predicaments, and thus readers can easily identify with the poem. While we can do our best to make logical decisions, it is often left to chance to determine how the choices we make will affect us. For example, when high school seniors begin searching for a college, they can do their research, make visits, form relationships with people on campus, join clubs and organizations, etc. all in hopes of succeeding, but it is entirely possible that once they actually arrive they will discover that they dislike their chosen major, get a particularly difficult professor, have trouble making friends, and so on. Then, they are left back at the beginning, at the same metaphorical fork in the road, with the opportunity to choose a different path, and their second blind guess may or may not turn out the same way as the first. Additionally, we often experience this in our Christian walks. The ways we choose to live lead us to a split between culture and God, and we have to choose whether to remain faithful or to turn. Similarly, the speaker in the poem knew that he had to make the choice between two paths