Robert Frost
In most of Robert Frost's poems he speaks of situations occurring in rural settings, as in "The Road Not Taken" (DiYanni 513) and "The Tuft of Flowers" (DiYanni 667-668). These, like most of his poems, are in the style of conversation. Although this helps to make him seem "natural," it is not a very effective form in poetry; we do not understand complicated matters "naturally." "Conversation is the most careless and formless of human utterance; it is spontaneous and unrevised, and its vocabulary is commonly limited. Poetry is the most difficult form of human utterance" (DiYanni 665). Although the two forms are complete opposites, Frost has been able to forge them together to create several beautiful poems. His mastery of this complicated endeavor has made him a well-renowned and well-liked poet. In "The Road Not Taken," Frost speaks of his decision between taking one path or another. This poem uses a great deal of symbolism. The words themselves talk of an actual fork in a road and what happens when one is taken. However, Frost is actually speaking of a fork in life, something that everyone faces almost on a daily basis. In the poem, Frost stands at the fork looking down both, trying to decide which one
- - - -. "The Road Not Taken." DiYanni 513. is the better of the two. This is something we do in life when faced with a decision. We weigh the options of each path and make the decision that is best based on our judgments and experiences. He then goes on to say that he takes the road that is "grassy and wanted wear" (Line 8), but soon finds out that it is just as worn as the other path looked. In life, no matter which path we take, we are not the first. There has always been someone (or several people) who have taken the same path. Both in the poem and in life, we can not help but think what the other path would have been like. We can then either make the decision to go back and try the other path, in some cases, or continue on our present course. In the poem, Frost decides to stay on his current path, as he has already been on it for more than a day. He goes on to say "Yet knowing how way leads on to way,/ I doubted if I should ever come back." (Lines 14-15). This holds true in life as well. Even if we want to go back to take the road not taken, we usually can not because our current path has already led us to new decisions which must be made. This is something that everyone has to deal with in our later years. We can only hope that the paths we have chosen through our lives have been the most fulfilling paths. In the closing lines of the poem, Frost says "I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the difference." This is an incorrect statement in two ways. One, he did not take the road less traveled by. It only seemed at first to be that way, but once he was further down the road, he noticed that it was just as worn as the other. Another way that this statement is false is how he says that his decision made all the difference - it made him who he is today. Though this may in fact be true, there is no way to know that. He may have turned out the same way had he taken the other path. This is merely an attempt to justify the decisions he has made in his life. We all do this - pretending, if you will, that all of our decisions
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Approximate Word count = 1400
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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