Everyone can think of a point in their life in which they were face to face with a difficult decision. It is only human to be ambiguous about what may have happened had a different decision been made. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, describes the conflict a man is faced with when it is his turn to make a decision. Whether his uncertainty makes him content with his choice or to question it, is up to the reader. Which road is the road "not taken?" Is it the one the speaker takes, which, according to his last description of it, is "less traveled"--not taken by others? Or does the title refer to the supposedly better-traveled road that the speaker himself fails to take? Specifically, who is not taking the road? This initial ambiguity gives the reader a taste of the speaker's internal conflict throughout the poem.
The speaker in this poem never reveals to the reader
which road he took or if it was even a good decision. The average reader may believe that the speaker is unsatisfied with his choice and continues to think about how things could have been different. But is he really unhappy? The line, "I shall be telling this with a sigh," leaves the reader to determine whether this is a sigh of relief, fatigue, confusion, or depression (Frost 20). It is probably not a sigh of relief because in the second line he explains "And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler" (Frost 2-3). This evidence shows that his sigh is for the worse. Had the road he traveled been superior then there is no room for doubt. On the other hand the quote, "I shall be telling this with a sigh" is at the end of the poem suggesting that after all the reflection, he is releasing a sigh of relief (Frost 20). It is finally over and he can now go on w
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