Explication of a Poem - The Road not Taken - Research Paper Example

“The Road not Taken” Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, is one of the most quoted, and analyzed anthologized poems in American poetry. This poem was written in the year 1916. The speaker of the poem comes upon a fork on the way as he walks through a yellow road. Both roads are equally worn out, and equally covered with un-trodden leaves, and he concludes that both the roads are equally attractive and well-travelled. The narrator chooses to use one of the roads, telling himself that he will choose on the other one on another day. However, he is aware that the chances of returning to the same point in the future, to take the other way are minimal. The author of the poem illustrates how serious the decisions people make directly affect their daily lives. Most people usually have hard times choosing on the right paths they ought to follow. In the poem, the path followed by the narrator marked a turning point in his life, and this made his life different from others. This means that he made the right decision in his life. The Road not Taken is made up of four stanzas of five lines. The rhymes of the poem are masculine and strict, with the exception of the last line, “And that has made all the difference” (Sengupta & Ed 187). Four syllables that vary on an iambic tetrameter base are stressed per line. One of the unique features of the poem is its archetypal problem, one that is easy to remember since it is encountered several times, both figuratively and literally. Metaphor is one of the stylistic devices that the author largely applies in his work. Forks in the roads and paths in the woods represent decisions and crises in lifeline. For instance, identical forks represent the nexus of fate and free will. People have the opportunity to choose what interest them, but they usually have no idea about the things they are choosing between. The paths different people choose to follow thus depend on accretion of opportunity and choice, and it is difficult to separate the two. This poem is authoritative, and it does not advice. There is no line in the poem that advices any reader to take forks when they come across them on the roads. The roads described in this poem are equally travelled, meaning that every decision made is a relevant choice. The narrator of the poem says, “Two roads diverged into a yellow wood and sorry I could not ravel both” (Sengupta & Ed 187). Yellow woods can be perceived to symbolize autumn, when leaves change color and begin to die. All the four stanzas of the poem show how the narrator had hard times deciding on which way he should take. As the poem unfolds, the author writes “green and wanted to wear” (Sengupta & Ed 187). The green symbolizes future hopes in life. Yellow and green color symbolizes two difference things. Yellow symbolizes difficult times, while green symbolizes a simple laid back time. Therefore, imagery used in the poem shows how decision making process is an essential practice in people’s daily lives and how it impacts everyone’s life. The ironic tone of the poem is inevitable. The speaker of the poem only realizes to make a distinction between the two roads after he has taken one of them, and he has also travelled through many roads in his life, but he has never made such a decision. When he comes across the fork in the road, he describes the paths as being essentially similar. Literally, both the paths are equally “fair”, and they have been equally walked upon (Fagan 295). The narrator, as an old man, attempts to reflect his past life, and decides on the importance of making wise decisions structure his current situation. In the first three stanzas, the speaker shows no sense of remorse for his past decisions, and he believes the decision is not a serious issue that can change his life. Later in the fourth paragraph, as an old man, the narrator realizes the need to examine his past life, and strives to explain why some things happened in his past life. The speaker believes that the negative things that have happened in his life are as a result of the “less travelled road” that he took (Fagan 295). This is, however, false, but he still holds on the decision as a changing point of his life, not only because of the road that he took, but because he made a wise decision in the first place. This poem is also infused with the expectation of remorse. Its title is “The Road Not Taken”, but not “The Road Less Travelled”. The narrator is forced to make a decision in the yellow woods, something that he did expect. He is stuck at a cross road, and he has to make a quick decision without definite basis or guide, if he does not want to stand in the yellow forest forever. He is also aware that some questions about the nature of the “path not followed” will cross through his mind in the middle of the taken path. He wonders of the things he has lost by not following the other path. However, the truth of his decision is that there is no valid path to take: just the “taken” and “not taken” paths (Fagan 295). This indicates that any choice made in life is equally valuable as the other forgone choices, if it is effectively implemented. In summary, decision making process and choice, like the choice “The Road Not Taken”, are linked to the future. The narrator of the poem realizes that decision making forms an essential part of everybody’s life, and it directly changes their lives. But the challenging part is that people generally do not understand that their decisions will change their lives until it has already changed it. The narrator reflects on his past life as a youthful man, and thinks of his missed opportunities as his decision takes him into the future and leaves the other opportunities behind. Works Cited Fagan D. J. Critical Companion to Robert Frost: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Print Sengupta A. & Ed. Selected College Poems. Andhra Pradesh: Orient Blackswan, 1988. Print Read More