Our speaker has come to a fork in a path in the woods. It's fall, and the leaves are turning colors. He's unsure which way to go, and wishes he could go both ways. He looks down one path as far as he can see, but then he decides to take the other. He thinks the path he decides to take is not quite as worn as the other one, but really, the paths are about the same, and the fallen leaves on both look pretty fresh.The speaker reflects on how he plans to take the road that he didn't take another day, but suspects that he probably won't ever come back. Instead, far off in the future, he'll be talking about how his decision was final and life changing. Stanza 1.
Line 1Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,. Our speaker is describing a fork in the road.
This poem was first published in 1916, when cars were only just beginning to become prominent, so these roads in the wood are probably more like paths, not roads like we'd think of them today. The woods are yellow, which means that it's probably fall and the leaves are turning colors. 'Diverged' is just another word for split. There's a fork in the road.Lines 2-3And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stood.
For an interpretation of the themes and meaning of the poem, you may go through the line by line summary and an explanation of the themes. Labels: critical analysis of poem road not taken; critical analysis essay of neither out far not in deep; critical analysis of the poem the road not taken by robert frost; roadnpot taken a critical analysis. Of all Robert Frost poems, none are more famous than “The Road Not Taken.” My analysis of leads to the following observations and queries: The rhyme scheme is a b a a b; The poem uses the well known metaphor of a path being compared to life, and a divergent path representing a choice.
The speaker wants to go down both roads at once, but since it's impossible to walk down two roads at once, he has to choose one road. The speaker is 'sorry' he can't travel both roads, suggesting regret. Because of the impossibility of traveling both roads, the speaker stands there trying to choose which path he's going to take. Because he's standing, we know that he's on foot, and not in a carriage or a car.Lines 4-5And looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;. The speaker really wants to go down both paths – he's thinking hard about his choice.
He's staring down one road, trying to see where it goes. But he can only see up to the first bend, where the undergrowth, the small plants and greenery of the woods, blocks his view. This is where we start to think about the metaphorical meanings of this poem. If our speaker is, as we suspect, at a fork in the road of his life, and not at an actual road, he could be trying to peer into his future as far as he can.
But, since he can't really predict the future, he can only see part of the path. Who knows what surprises it could hold?. Stanza 2. Line 6Then took the other, as just as fair,. So after all this buildup about one road, which he's looked down for a long time, our speaker takes the other path. Then we get a tricky little phrase to describe this road.
It's 'as just as fair.' Read without the first 'as,' this phrase is clear, if you think of fair as meaning attractive, or pretty. But the first 'as' makes the phrase a little more difficult.
Combining the words 'just' and 'fair' in the same phrase is a play on words – both of these words have multiple meanings. The phrase could mean something like 'as just as it is fair,' as in proper, righteous, and equal. But this doesn't quite apply to a road. Yet we trust that our speaker wouldn't let things get awkward without meaning it. We're guessing that he means the road is just as pretty, but that in the metaphorical world of this poem, he thinks he made the fair, or right, choice.
But it's not fairer – it's just as fair. So he was choosing between two roads, or futures, that were different but potentially equally good.Lines 7-8And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;. The speaker still seems pretty uncertain when he explains that this second path is better. It is only 'perhaps' better.
Then the speaker tells us why the path is better – it seems like it hasn't been walked on very much, because it's grassy and doesn't look worn. Be careful not to think that the phrase 'wanted wear' is personification (it is alliteration, though).
'Wanted,' in this instance, means something more like 'lacked.' Lines 9-10Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,. The speaker of this poem really can't seem to make up his mind!
Just when we think we've got a declaration about which path is better, he changes his mind and admits that maybe they were equal after all. The 'as for that' refers to the path being less worn. 'The passing there' refers to traffic, probably on foot just like our speaker, that may have worn the paths down. Stanza 3. Lines 11-12And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.
Here, again, we hear that the paths are equal, but we find out something new, that it's morning. It's possible that our speaker is the first to travel to this place on that day. The paths are covered with leaves, which haven't been turned black by steps crushing them. Wait, we thought one path was grassyand now it's covered with leaves. Possibly, the leaves aren't very thick, or the grass sticks up in between them. Or maybe the speaker isn't being quite honest.Line 13Oh, I kept the first for another day!.
The speaker seems like he's already regretting his decision. He is rationalizing his choice of path by saying he'll come back to the one he missed later. This is a familiar way to deal with difficult choices; 'you can always come back and try it again later,' we think. With an 'Oh' at the beginning and an exclamation point at the end, this line is emphatic. The speaker feels strongly about what he's saying here.Lines 14-15Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back. The speaker realizes that his hopes to come back and try the other path may be foolish.
He knows how 'way leads on to way' – how one road can lead to another, and then another, until you end up very far from where you started. Because of this, he doesn't think he'll ever be able to come back and take that other path, as much as he wishes he could. Here we return to the metaphorical meaning of this poem.
In any life decision, we can hedge our bets by thinking we can always come back, try a different option later. But sometimes our decisions take us to other decisions, and yet still others, and it's impossible for us to retrace our steps and arrive back at that original decision. It's like deciding which college to go to – 'I can always transfer' a high school senior might think. But then, once the decision is made and freshman year has passed, the reality hits that switching schools is a lot more complicated than it seems, and it's hard to start completely over somewhere else. Lines 16-17I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:.
Now we jump forward in time. We don't know exactly when, but we know that it's ages and ages 'hence,' or, from now.
Contents.History Frost spent the years 1912 to 1915 in England, where among his acquaintances was the writer. Thomas and Frost became close friends and took many walks together. After Frost returned to New Hampshire in 1915, he sent Thomas an advance copy of 'The Road Not Taken'. Thomas took the poem seriously and personally, and it may have been significant in Thomas' decision to enlist in.
Thomas was killed two years later in the. Analysis 'The Road Not Taken' is a poem.
It reads naturally or conversationally and begins as a kind of photographic depiction of a quiet moment in woods. It consists of four of 5 lines each. The first line rhymes with the third and fourth, and the second line rhymes with the fifth (ABAAB). The meter is basically, with each line having four two-syllable feet. Though in almost every line, in different positions, an iamb is replaced with an. The variation of the rhythm gives naturalness, a feeling of thought occurring spontaneously, and it also affects the reader's sense of expectation. In the only line that contains strictly iambs, the more regular rhythm supports the idea of a turning towards an acceptance of a kind of reality: 'Though as for that the passing there ' In the final line, the way the rhyme and rhythm work together is significantly different, and catches the reader off guard.It is one of Frost's most popular works.
Some have said that it is one of his most misunderstood poems, claiming that it is not simply a poem that champions the idea of 'following your own path', but that the poem, they suggest, expresses some irony regarding that idea.Frost's biographer Lawrance Thompson suggests that the poem's narrator is 'one who habitually wastes energy in regretting any choice made: belatedly but wistfully he sighs over the attractive alternative rejected'. Thompson also says that when introducing the poem in readings, Frost would say that the speaker was based on his friend Edward Thomas. In Frost's words, Thomas was 'a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn't go the other. He was hard on himself that way.' Regarding the 'sigh' that is mentioned in the last stanza, it may be seen as an expression of regret or of satisfaction, but there is significance in the difference between what the speaker has just said of the two roads, and what he will say in the future. According to the biographer Lawrance Thompson, as Frost was once about to read the poem, he commented to his audience, 'You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem—very tricky,' perhaps intending to suggest the poem's ironic possibilities.
A book review on Brian Hall's 2008 biography Fall of Frost states: 'Whichever way they go, they're sure to miss something good on the other path.' References.
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New York Times. Retrieved June 13, 2015.External links has original text related to this article.