Preview

The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1502 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Analysis
Robert Lee Frost (born in San Francisco, March 26, 1874 and died in Boston, January 29, 1963) was one of America's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Although his verse forms are traditional, he was a pioneer in the interplay of rhythm and meter and in the poetic use of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday speech. His poetry is thus both traditional and experimental.
<br>
<br>After Frost's father died in 1885, the family left California and settled in Massachusetts. From 1897 to 1899 he attended Harvard College as a special student, but left without a degree. Over the next ten years he wrote (but rarely published) poems, operated a farm in Derry, New Hampshire (purchased for him by his grandfather), and supplemented his income by teaching.
<br>
<br>In 1912 he sold the farm and used the proceeds to take his family to England, where he could devote himself entirely to writing. His efforts to establish himself and his work were almost immediately successful. A Boy's Will was accepted by a London publisher and brought out in 1913, followed a year later by North of Boston. In 1924 he received a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for New Hampshire (1923). He received it again for Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), and A Witness Tree (1942). Over the years he received an unprecedented number and range of literary, academic, and public honors. 1
<br>
<br><b>The Road Not Taken</b>
<br>Although I must admit that I am not a poetry fan, many of the poems of Robert Frost appeal to me, and this would have to be the one that appeals the most, in other words, it is my favorite poem. When I first read this poem, I liked it because of its free verse style (which I like) and its apparent simplicity, but, after much study, its true meaning became apparent. The obvious basic meaning is that the poem is about a person's choices in life. The narrator describes coming to a problem with the fork in the road. He must go down one but feels he

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost Outline

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages

    B. Scope and Sequence-Robert Frost often wrote about his own life experiences those were many of his inspirations for poetry. He wrote about experiences in Massachusetts and New England. After moving to Massachusetts that’s were his poetry career started to build up and expand. Later on in his adulthood he worked as a teacher and continued to write more poems. He didn’t have much luck with his poetry in America so he moved…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Robert Lee Frost was an American born poet, winner of four Pulitzer Price in poetry. Robert Frost’s career took off after moving to England in 1912 where his first book as a poet was published “A boy’s will.” Upon his return to the United States Mr. Frost’s reputation had been acknowledged and accepted, and thus he became a teacher while he continued to write poetry. In 1961…

    • 1600 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Lee Frost was one of America 's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. An essentially pastoral poet often…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    "The Road Not Taken" captured my attention because I was able to relate to the literary work in a personal way. The poem contains a metaphor in which an individual has to make a decision between two important choices. This touched me because it reminded me of the time when I came to this country and I faced a situation where I had to choose between two important things. Let me explain, one of the reasons that I came to the United States was to help my family financially. Since I did not speak English, I was only able to get a job that paid minimum wage. I was very frustrated because I needed more money than what I was getting paid each week. The situation got worse when one of my relatives got very sick. Everything came down to two choices. I could continue my venture in this country or I could go back to my home country, Peru. In "The Road Not Taken," Frost underscores these powerful moments in our lives. It speaks of situations when life encourages, changes, or improves us. There were…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout his life he gained many honors and awards. He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1924, 1931, 1937, and in 1943. He was also named “Poet laureate of Vermont on July 22, 1961 and in the year before congress voted him for a gold medal. Also in 1961 (January) his career reached a climax when he recited his poem “The Gift Outright” at the inauguration of President John F.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frost is an important writer due to the fact that he helped renew popular interest in American poetry by refusing to write with the academic modernist style used at the time, he chose to be different. Frost wrote about nature and rural life in a traditional yet complex way that grabbed the interest of many people. Some of his best works that I particularly like include “The Road Not Taken”, “Home Burial”, and “Fire and Ice”. These poems Frost wrote helped form the conception of Americans as tough, self-sufficient individuals. “Home Burial” was about the overwhelming grief after the death of a child. Frost knew and experienced this first hand due to the loss of quite a few people. “Fire and Ice” considers the apocalyptic end of the world.…

    • 203 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frost uses the images presented in the poem in a very involved and general way. The paths and the fork no longer refer to their definitions, but instead as keywords in a description of life. Through the poem, Frost is defining life as a series of decisions. Some of these decisions may, at the time, be thought of as insignificant, while others could be thought of as very significant. Frost argues that a decision's significance at the time is not really important, for any choice will change one's life. Every day, people, including the narrator of the poem, are presented with "Two roads" that diverge "in a yellow wood." These roads are not concrete or physical, but rather represent choices. The fact that one road is "grassy and wanted wear" while the other was commonly traversed shows the reader that some choices require one to choose something that is not commonly sought or to do something…

    • 1092 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frost first introduces the primary symbol of the poem in the first line; “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both.” If interpreted literally the poem is that of a man at a separation of paths in a yellow wood. The symbolism in the poem, however, involves the use of both roads as symbols of the choices made in the speaker’s life and the consequences of making those choices. In addition to the two roads symbolizing a crossing in the speaker’s life, there is a sense of regret in the speaker’s words. “And sorry I could not travel both.” Even though the speaker after much examination of both paths eventually makes a decision about which path he will choose to take, he also establishes that the decision, whether made irrationally or thought long and hard about, will change the speaker’s life in unpredictable ways. Without this symbolism represented by the fork in the road, this poem would have no choice but to be taken literally and would lose the recondite meaning behind the two paths diverged in a yellow…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost Quick Bio.

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In England Frost met many great poets, and had many influencers’. Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves were just a couple names, but they had a huge impact on how he wrote. Continuing to write, Frost moved back to the states to Boston publishing many more great poems. Outliving a lot of people and family, Frost lived to be the age of eighty eight, dying on January 29, 1963. He was buried next to his wife and children, who will go down with the great name of Frost forever. Never forgotten, Frost’s poetry is still read today and used in many ways to help…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tragedy struck once again when Frost’s daughter Marjorie died after giving birth in the late 1920s and Frost’s beloved wife, Elinor, died of heart failure in 1938. Although mourning the loss of a daughter and wife, Frost continued to gain fame. Frost received the Pulitzer prize for four of his books: New Hampshire (1923); Collected Poems (1930); A Further Range (1936); and A Witness Tree (1942). In 1940, Frost went through another tough time when Frost’s son, Carol, committed suicide. Seven years later, Frost’s daughter Irma was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with mental illness. Frost had to push through and focus on the positives in life, Frost couldn’t let these tragedies destroy his…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Master of Horror

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    He was from a typical family until as a young boy his father left to get cigarettes and never returned. He moved around for awhile after that but then his family found their way back to Maine. His passion for writing began at a young age, when in 1959, he and his brother wrote a local newspaper. He later collaborated with his best friend in high school and wrote a collection of short stories, "People, Places, and Things--Volume I".…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eng 125 Week 1 Assignment

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The poem captured my interest through the use of images and persona. The ability of Robert Frost to use these elements and weave a poem that relates to the proverbial “fork in the road” drew me into the text. I was able to relive my critical life path decisions by reading the poem. I was also able…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Mending Wall

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26th, 1874. Frost’s father was a journalist whose drinking habits let to an early death by tuberculosis in 1885 at the age of 34. After his death, Frost’s mother moved to the family to Massachusetts where Frost graduated in 1892 as one of the two valedictorians from Lawrence High School. His co-valedictorian was his future wife, Elinor Miriam White. After…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Robert Frost is an excellent poet and will be remembered for his works for as long as they exist. Personally Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets, so when I saw this poem, I had to use it to write my explication. When I read The Road Not Taken, it really hit close to home to me. I get the sense from Frost that he is implying that he doesn’t want people to conform to society. Basically he does not want us to follow a path just because most others have chosen that path. Most importantly in the poem, Frost leaves us with the theme of having to choose a path in which we have no knowledge of where it will take us. We can all relate to this especially my self because I had the same type of decision to make when it came to picking a college. Frost wants us to be different and to make decision for ourselves in life. I feel he wants us to be independent people who make our own future. Throughout this explication, I am going to explain the themes and meanings of each line of the poem and how those themes contribute to the overall meaning of being different and making your own decisions without the influence of others in which Frost implies to his readers.…

    • 1808 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This poem is written by Robert frost.He was born in San Francisco on 26 march 1874. He died on 29 january 1963.…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics