Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken

A detailed Summary of Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken


The poem "The Road Not Taken" is about the one thing that every living human being will and does encounter, multiple times through out life, it is the miracle of being able to choose. With that choice we must also face the fact that we can never go back and explore the other road not taken. Some choices are easier to choose while other takes some contemplating and time to resolve. But when it is all said and done and we have made our choice, there is still the road we didn't choose and often times we wonder about the road not taken.

In the first stanza is a place where two roads diverged which represents the encounter of having to choose from two paths a direction that will dictate the rest of ones life. When faced with decisions, man has to weigh his options carefully to make a more efficient choice. At the split in the road, the speaker looks down both of the paths to see what each of the paths will bring. The speaker's sight is limited; his eyes can only see the path until it bends into "the undergrowth". This is symbolic of people trying to foresee what each choice might bring, but our presage is limited, thus the representation of the undergrowth. But all that is seen is that both diverge into a "yellow wood" and a


ppear to be "about the same". The first of the two paths is the more common route whereas the other less traveled path, "wanted wear." In this Frost brings up the conflict of whether to take the more easy way, the path more commonly traveled, or the way that is more complicated and not as easy to foresee the destination in which is the road less traveled. Choosing the already known easy path in which many people choose reassures that the outcome will be predictable. While choosing the "less traveled" road represents the chance of facing a more difficult path in life in hopes to achieve a more satisfactory life. The choice is made after much contemplation, and the choice is to take the road less traveled. As he is going down that road he has chosen, he still wonders and longs to travel the road not taken. Even when he says to himself in the third stanza that he will keep the first path for another day, he knows that he will not have the opportunity to come back, because "way leads on to way."

We are shown in this poem that we are limited to explore all of life's different possibilities. As in "In Hardwood Groves" we see that the only possibility for the leaves to return is to decay into the

Some common words found in the essay are:
, Hardwood Groves, common route, poem road, similar choices, traveled road, path life, choice road, easy path, road traveled,

Approximate Word count = 813
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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