1

INTRODUCTION
"The Road Not Taken" is a narrative poem. It reads naturally or conversationally, and begins as
a kind of photographic depiction of a quiet moment in a woods. It consists of four stanzas of 5
lines each. The first line rhymes with the third and fourth, and the second line rhymes with the
fifth The meter is basically iambic tetrameter, with each line having four two-syllable feet.
Though in almost every line, in different positions, an iamb is replaced with an anapest. 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".
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 biographer Lawrence
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 New York Times Sunday 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."
 2

CHAPTER 1
ROBERT FROST
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California, to journalist William Prescott
Frost, Jr., and Isabelle Moodie. His mother was a Scottish immigrant, and his
father descended from Nicholas Frost of Tiverton, Devon, England, who had
sailed to New Hampshire in 1634 on the Wolfrana.
Frost was a descendant of Samuel Appleton, one of the early settlers of Ipswich,
Massachusetts, and Rev. George Phillips, one of the early settlers of Watertown,
Massachusetts.
Frost's father was a teacher and later an editor of the San Francisco Evening
Bulletin (which later merged with The San Francisco Examiner), and an
unsuccessful candidate for city tax collector. After his death on May 5, 1885, the
family moved across the country to Lawrence, Massachusetts, under the patronage
of (Robert's grandfather) William Frost, Sr., who was an overseer at a New
England mill. Frost graduated from Lawrence High School in 1892Frost's mother
joined the Swedenborgian church and had him baptized in it, but he left it as an
adult.
Although known for his later association with rural life, Frost grew up in the city,
and he published his first poem in his high school's magazine. He attended
Dartmouth College for two months, long enough to be accepted into the Theta
Delta Chi fraternity. Frost returned home to teach and to work at various jobs,
including helping his mother teach her class of unruly boys, delivering
newspapers, and working in a factory maintaining carbon arc lamps. He did not
enjoy these jobs, feeling his true calling was poetry.
 3

Adult years
Robert Frost's 85th birthday in 1959
In 1894, he sold his first poem, "My Butterfly. An Elegy" (published in the
November 8, 1894, edition of the New York Independent) for $15 ($424 today).
Proud of his accomplishment, he proposed marriage to Elinor Miriam White, but
she demurred, wanting to finish college (at St. Lawrence University) before they
married. Frost then went on an excursion to the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia
and asked Elinor again upon his return. Having graduated, she agreed, and they
were married at Lawrence, Massachusetts on December 19, 1895.
Frost attended Harvard University from 1897 to 1899, but he left voluntarily due
to illness.[6][7][8] Shortly before his death, Frost's grandfather purchased a farm for
Robert and Elinor in Derry, New Hampshire; Frost worked the farm for nine years
while writing early in the mornings and producing many of the poems that would
later become famous. Ultimately his farming proved unsuccessful and he returned
to the field of education as an English teacher at New Hampshire's Pinkerton
Academy from 1906 to 1911, then at the New Hampshire Normal School (now
Plymouth State University) in Plymouth, New Hampshire.
In 1912, Frost sailed with his family to Great Britain, settling first in
Beaconsfield, a small town outside London. His first book of poetry, A Boy's Will,
was published the next year. In England he made some important acquaintances,
including Edward Thomas (a member of the group known as the Dymock poets
and Frost's inspiration for "The Road Not Taken"[9]), T. E. Hulme, and Ezra
Pound. Although Pound would become the first American to write a favorable
review of Frost's work, Frost later resented Pound's attempts to manipulate his
American prosody. Frost met or befriended many contemporary poets in England,
especially after his first two poetry volumes were published in London in 1913 (A
Boy's Will) and 1914 (North of Boston).
 4

The Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire, where he wrote many of his
poems, including "Tree at My Window" and "Mending Wall."
In 1915, during World War I, Frost returned to America, where Holt's American
edition of A Boy's Will had recently been published, and bought a farm in
Franconia, New Hampshire, where he launched a career of writing, teaching, and
lecturing. This family homestead served as the Frosts' summer home until 1938. It
is maintained today as The Frost Place, a museum and poetry conference site. He
was made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard[10] in 1916. During
the years 1917–20, 1923–25, and, on a more informal basis, 1926–1938, Frost
taught English at Amherst College in Massachusetts, notably encouraging his
students to account for the myriad sounds and intonations of the spoken English
language in their writing. He called his colloquial approach to language "the
sound of sense."
In 1924, he won the first of four Pulitzer Prizes for the book New Hampshire: A
Poem with Notes and Grace Notes. He would win additional Pulitzers for
Collected Poems in 1931, A Further Range in 1937, and A Witness Tree in 1943.
For forty-two years – from 1921 to 1962 – Frost spent almost every summer and
fall teaching at the Bread Loaf School of English of Middlebury College, at its
mountain campus at Ripton, Vermont. He is credited as a major influence upon
the development of the school and its writing programs. The college now owns
and maintains his former Ripton farmstead as a national historic site near the
Bread Loaf campus.[13] In 1921 Frost accepted a fellowship teaching post at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he resided until 1927 when he returned
to teach at Amherst. While teaching at the University of Michigan, he was
awarded a lifetime appointment at the University as a Fellow in Letters.[14] The
Robert Frost Ann Arbor home was purchased by The Henry Ford Museum in
Dearborn, Michigan and relocated to the museum's Greenfield Village site for
public tours.
 5

In 1934, Frost began to spend winter months in Florida.[15] In March 1935, he gave
a talk at the University of Miami.[15] In 1940, he bought a 5-acre (2.0 ha) plot in
South Miami, Florida, naming it Pencil Pines; he spent his winters there for the
rest of his life.[15] In her memoir about Frost's time in Florida, Helen Muir writes,
"Frost had called his five acres Pencil Pines because he said he had never made a
penny from anything that did not involve the use of a pencil."[15] His properties
also included a house on Brewster Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that today
belongs to the National Historic Register.
Harvard's 1965 alumni directory indicates Frost received an honorary degree
there. Although he never graduated from college, Frost received over 40 honorary
degrees, including ones from Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge universities, and
was the only person to receive two honorary degrees from Dartmouth College.
During his lifetime, the Robert Frost Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia, the
Robert L. Frost School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and the main library of
Amherst College were named after him.

"I had a lover's quarrel with the world." The epitaph engraved on his tomb is an
excerpt from his poem "The Lesson for Today."
In 1960, Frost was awarded a United States Congressional Gold Medal, "In
recognition of his poetry, which has enriched the culture of the United States and
the philosophy of the world,"[16] which was finally bestowed by President Kennedy
in March 1962.[17] Also in 1962, he was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal
for outstanding contribution to the arts by the MacDowell Colony.[18]
Frost was 86 when he read at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy on January 20,
1961. Frost originally attempted to read his poem "Dedication", which was written
for the occasion, but was unable to read it due to the brightness of the sunlight, so
he recited his poem "The Gift Outright" from memory instead.[19] Frost died in
Boston two years later, on January 29, 1963, of complications from prostate
surgery. He was buried at the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont.
 6

His epitaph quotes the last line from his poem, "The Lesson for Today (1942): "I
had a lover's quarrel with the world."
One of the original collections of Frost materials, to which he himself contributed,
is found in the Special Collections department of the Jones Library in Amherst,
Massachusetts. The collection consists of approximately twelve thousand items,
including original manuscript poems and letters, correspondence and photographs,
as well as audio and visual recordings.[20] The Archives and Special Collections at
Amherst College holds a small collection of his papers. The University of
Michigan Library holds the Robert Frost Family Collection of manuscripts,
photographs, printed items, and artwork. The most significant collection of Frost's
working manuscripts is held by Dartmouth.
Personal life

The Frost family grave in Bennington Old Cemetery

Robert Frost's personal life was plagued by grief and loss. In 1885 when he was
11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with just eight dollars.
Frost's mother died of cancer in 1900. In 1920, he had to commit his younger
sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later. Mental illness
apparently ran in Frost's family, as both he and his mother suffered from
depression, and his daughter Irma was committed to a mental hospital in 1947.
Frost's wife, Elinor, also experienced bouts of depression.[14]
Elinor and Robert Frost had six children: son Elliot (1896–1904, died of cholera);
daughter Lesley Frost Ballantine (1899–1983); son Carol (1902–1940, committed
suicide); daughter Irma (1903–1967); daughter Marjorie (1905–1934, died as a
result of puerperal fever after childbirth); and daughter Elinor Bettina (died just
three days after her birth in 1907). Only Lesley and Irma outlived their father.
Frost's wife, who had heart problems throughout her life, developed breast cancer
in 1937, and died of heart failure in 1938.[14]
Work
 7

Style and critical response

The poet/critic Randall Jarrell often praised Frost's poetry and wrote, "Robert
Frost, along with Stevens and Eliot, seems to me the greatest of the American
poets of this century. Frost's virtues are extraordinary. No other living poet has
written so well about the actions of ordinary men; his wonderful dramatic
monologues or dramatic scenes come out of a knowledge of people that few poets
have had, and they are written in a verse that uses, sometimes with absolute
mastery, the rhythms of actual speech." He also praised "Frost's seriousness and
honesty," stating that Frost was particularly skilled at representing a wide range of
human experience in his poems.[21]
Jarrell's notable and influential essays on Frost include the essays "Robert Frost's
'Home Burial'" (1962), which consisted of an extended close reading of that
particular poem, and "To The Laodiceans" (1952) in which Jarrell defended Frost
against critics who had accused Frost of being too "traditional" and out of touch
with Modern or Modernist poetry.

U.S stamp, 1974

In Frost's defense, Jarrell wrote "the regular ways of looking at Frost's poetry are
grotesque simplifications, distortions, falsifications—coming to know his poetry
well ought to be enough, in itself, to dispel any of them, and to make plain the
necessity of finding some other way of talking about his work." And Jarrell's close
readings of poems like "Neither Out Too Far Nor In Too Deep" led readers and
critics to perceive more of the complexities in Frost's poetry.[22][23]
In an introduction to Jarrell's book of essays, Brad Leithauser notes that, "the
'other' Frost that Jarrell discerned behind the genial, homespun New England
rustic—the 'dark' Frost who was desperate, frightened, and brave—has become
the Frost we've all learned to recognize, and the little-known poems Jarrell singled
out as central to the Frost canon are now to be found in most anthologies." [24][25]
 8

Jarrell lists a selection of the Frost poems he considers the most masterful,
including "The Witch of Coös," "Home Burial," "A Servant to Servants,"
"Directive," "Neither Out Too Far Nor In Too Deep," "Provide, Provide,"
"Acquainted with the Night," "After Apple Picking," "Mending Wall," "The Most
of It," "An Old Man's Winter Night," "To Earthward," "Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening," "Spring Pools," "The Lovely Shall Be Choosers," "Design,"
[and] "Desert Places."[26]
From "Birches"[27]
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
Robert Frost
In 2003, the critic Charles McGrath noted that critical views on Frost's poetry
have changed over the years (as has his public image). In an article called "The
Vicissitudes of Literary Reputation," McGrath wrote, "Robert Frost ... at the time
of his death in 1963 was generally considered to be a New England folkie ... In
1977, the third volume of Lawrance Thompson's biography suggested that Frost
was a much nastier piece of work than anyone had imagined; a few years later,
thanks to the reappraisal of critics like William H. Pritchard and Harold Bloom
 9

and of younger poets like Joseph Brodsky, he bounced back again, this time as a
bleak and unforgiving modernist."[28]
In The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, editors Richard Ellmann and Robert
O'Clair compared and contrasted Frost's unique style to the work of the poet
Edwin Arlington Robinson since they both frequently used New England settings
for their poems. However, they state that Frost's poetry was "less [consciously]
literary" and that this was possibly due to the influence of English and Irish
writers like Thomas Hardy and W.B. Yeats. They note that Frost's poems "show a
successful striving for utter colloquialism" and always try to remain down to
earth, while at the same time using traditional forms despite the trend of American
poetry towards free verse which Frost famously said was "'like playing tennis
without a net.'"[29][30]
In providing an overview of Frost's style, the Poetry Foundation makes the same
point, placing Frost's work "at the crossroads of nineteenth-century American
poetry [with regard to his use of traditional forms] and modernism [with his use of
idiomatic language and ordinary, every day subject matter]." They also note that
Frost believed that "the self-imposed restrictions of meter in form" was more
helpful than harmful because he could focus on the content of his poems instead
of concerning himself with creating "innovative" new verse forms.[31]
An earlier 1963 study by the poet James Radcliffe Squires spoke to the distinction
of Frost as a poet whose verse soars more for the difficulty and skill by which he
attains his final visions, than for the philosophical purity of the visions
themselves. "'He has written at a time when the choice for the poet seemed to lie
among the forms of despair: Science, solipsism, or the religion of the past
century…Frost has refused all of these and in the refusal has long seemed less
dramatically committed than others…But no, he must be seen as dramatically
uncommitted to the single solution…Insofar as Frost allows to both fact and
intuition a bright kingdom, he speaks for many of us. Insofar as he speaks through
an amalgam of senses and sure experience so that his poetry seems a nostalgic
 10

memory with overtones touching some conceivable future, he speaks better than
most of us. That is to say, as a poet must."'[32]
The classicist Helen Bacon has proposed that Frost's deep knowledge of Greek
and Roman classics influenced much of his work. Frost’s education at Lawrence
High School, Dartmouth, and Harvard "was based mainly on the classics." As
examples, she links imagery and action in Frost’s early poems Birches" (1915)
and "Wild Grapes" (1920) with Euripedes' "Bacchae". She cites the certain motifs,
including that of the tree bent down to earth, as evidence of his "very attentive
reading of 'Bacchae', almost certainly in Greek." In a later poem, "One More
Brevity" (1953), Bacon compares the poetic techniques used by Frost to those of
Virgil in the "Aeneid". She notes that "this sampling of the ways Frost drew on
the literature and concepts of the Greek and Roman world at every stage of his life
indicates how imbued with it he was."
 11

CHAPTER 2
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Hope you liked that.
Now let’s discuss it a little bit.

Why the Two Roads?

The first thing that made me wonder when I read the poem is: Is there any difference between
the two roads, and if there is: what is it?
In the first stanzas* there seems to be no difference. Line 6 says that the speaker took the
second road, which was “just as fair“ as the first road, or maybe it was just a teeny bit better,
 12

because it was “grassy” and it wasn’t worn (it “wanted wear”) – see line 8. But then again in
lines 9 to 12, the speaker repeats that the two roads are more or less the same. Not many people
have passed them, and they are both filled with leaves. Apparently it’s autumn and the leaves
have fallen on the ground, because as it says in the very first line of the poem, we’re in a yellow
wood.
*A stanza is a part of a poem that is separated by white lines. In the poem that we’re discussing,
there are four stanzas and each measures five lines.

At the end when the speaker has studied and compared the two roads carefully, he chooses the
second road. As far as I can see, he does this for no particular reason.

Looking Back
Then in the last stanza, we’re in the future: “I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages
and ages hence:”. At this point the speaker looks back and he now understands that the road he
chose back then was the one that was less-traveled. This has changed his life (“And that has
made all the difference.”). We’ll never find out, however, what exactly is so different now.
Does the speaker mean that his life has been different from other people’s lives? Or does he
mean that the road was different compared to how his own life could have been? He doesn’t tell
us. The poem remains very mysterious until the very end.

Good Life or Not?

We don’t even know whether the speaker is sad or happy about the choice he made long ago.
It depends how much meaning you want to read in the “sigh” in line 16. Some critics of this
poem say that the speaker regrets having made a choice in his life years ago, because he was
never able to experience the things he could have had if he had made the other choice. But some
other critics say that it was a satisfied sigh. That is what Frost himself implied (= suggested)
when he commented that the sigh “was my rather private jest at the expense of those who
might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life.” So in his words, the sigh
was a kind of joke, and the poet was not sorry about the choices he made in his life.

Regrets: Making Sense of the Past

I myself think that the speaker is sighing because he thinks it’s too bad that you can’t do
everything you want in life. It’s human nature to feel regret about experiences that you weren’t
able to do, because you were busy with other things. That’s life you could say! In addition, to
my mind the poem expresses gently and beautifully that people are fond of ascribing (= giving)
 13

meaning to events in their lives that are meaningless or accidental. So what if the speaker chose
the second road instead of the first road. Does it really mean he will never (be able to) return to
the same spot again?
So what do you think of this poem? Do you have your own ideas about it?
The Poem
“The Road Not Taken” is one of Robert Frost’s most familiar and most popular
poems. It is made up of four stanzas of five lines each, and each line has between
eight and ten syllables in a roughly iambic rhythm; the lines in each stanza rhyme
in an abaab pattern. The popularity of the poem is largely a result of the
simplicity of its symbolism: The speaker must choose between diverging paths in
a wood, and he sees that choice as a metaphor for choosing between different
directions in life. Nevertheless, for such a seemingly simple poem, it has been
subject to very different interpretations of how the speaker feels about his
situation and how the reader is to view the speaker. In 1961, Frost himself
commented that “The Road Not Taken” is “a tricky poem, very tricky.”
Frost wrote the poem in the first person, which raises the question of whether the
speaker is the poet himself or a persona, a character created for the purposes of the
poem. According to the Lawrance Thompson biography, Robert Frost: The Years
of Triumph (1971), Frost would often introduce the poem in public readings by
saying that the speaker was based on his Welsh 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.”
In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker, while walking on an autumn day in a
forest where the leaves have changed to yellow, must choose between two paths
that head in different directions. He regrets that he cannot follow both roads, but
since that is not possible, he pauses for a long while to consider his choice. In the
first stanza and the beginning of the second, one road seems preferable; however,
by the beginning of the third stanza he has decided that the paths are roughly
 14

equivalent. Later in the third stanza, he tries to cheer himself up by reassuring

himself that he will return someday and walk the other road.
At the end of the third stanza and in the fourth, however, the speaker resumes his
initial tone of sorrow and regret. He realizes that he probably will never return to
walk the alternate path, and in the fourth stanza he considers how the choice he
must make now will look to him in the future. The speaker believes that when he
looks back years later, he will see that he had actually chosen the “less traveled”
road. He also thinks that he will later realize what a large difference this choice
has made in his life. Two important details suggest that the speaker believes that
he will later regret having followed his chosen road: One is the idea that he will
“sigh” as he tells this story, and the other is that the poem is entitled “The Road
Not Taken”—implying that he will never stop thinking about the other path he
might have followed.
Robert Frost: Poems Summary and Analysis of "The Road Not Taken"
(1916)
The narrator comes upon a fork in the road while walking through a yellow wood.
He considers both paths and concludes that each one is equally well-traveled and
appealing. After choosing one of the roads, the narrator tells himself that he will
come back to this fork one day in order to try the other road. However, he realizes
that it is unlikely that he will ever have the opportunity to come back to this
specific point in time because his choice of path will simply lead to other forks in
the road (and other decisions). The narrator ends on a nostalgic note, wondering
how different things would have been had he chosen the other path.
Analysis
This poem is made up of four stanzas of five lines, each with a rhyme scheme of
ABAAB.
Along with “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” this poem is one of
Frost’s most beloved works and is frequently studied in high school literature
classes. Since its publication, many readers have analyzed the poem as a nostalgic
 15

commentary on life choices. The narrator decided to seize the day and express
himself as an individual by choosing the road that was “less traveled by.” As a
result of this decision, the narrator claims, his life was fundamentally different
that it would have been had he chosen the more well-traveled path.
This reading of the poem is extremely popular because every reader can
empathize with the narrator’s decision: having to choose between two paths
without having any knowledge of where each road will lead. Moreover, the
narrator’s decision to choose the “less traveled” path demonstrates his courage.
Rather than taking the safe path that others have traveled, the narrator prefers to
make his own way in the world.
However, when we look closer at the text of the poem, it becomes clear that such
an idealistic analysis is largely inaccurate. The narrator only distinguishes the
paths from one another after he has already selected one and traveled many years
through life. When he first comes upon the fork in the road, the paths are
described as being fundamentally identical. In terms of beauty, both paths are
equally “fair,” and the overall “…passing there / Had worn them really about the
same.”
It is only as an old man that the narrator looks back on his life and decides to
place such importance on this particular decision in his life. During the first three
stanzas, the narrator shows no sense of remorse for his decision nor any
acknowledgement that such a decision might be important to his life. Yet, as an
old man, the narrator attempts to give a sense of order to his past and perhaps
explain why certain things happened to him. Of course, the excuse that he took the
road “less traveled by” is false, but the narrator still clings to this decision as a
defining moment of his life, not only because of the path that he chose but
because he had to make a choice in the first place.
 16

ROBERT FROST AND THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

The Road Not Taken is an ambiguous poem that allows the reader to think about choices in life,
whether to go with the mainstream or go it alone. If life is a journey, this poem
highlights those times in life when a decision has to be made. Which way to go?
The ambiguity springs from the question of free will versus determinism, whether
the speaker in the poem consciously decides to take the road that is off the beaten
track or only does so because he doesn't fancy the road with the bend in it.
External factors therefore make up his mind for him.
Robert Frost wrote this poem to highlight a trait of, and poke fun at, his friend
Edward Thomas, an English-Welsh poet, who, when out walking with Frost in
England would often regret not having taken a different path. Thomas would sigh
over what they might have seen and done and Frost thought this quaintly
romantic.
In other words, Frost's friend regretted not taking the road that might have offered
the best opportunities, despite it being an unknown.
Frost liked to tease and goad. He told Thomas : 'No matter which road you take,
you'll always sigh and wish you'd taken another.' So it's ironic that Frost meant
the poem to be light-hearted but it turned out to be anything but. People take it
very seriously.
It is the hallmark of the true poet to take such everyday realities, in this case the
sighs of a friend on a country walk, and transform them into something so much
more.
The Road Not Taken is all about what did not happen - this person, faced with an
important conscious decision, chose the least popular, the path of most resistance.
He was destined to go down one, regretted not being able to take both, so he
sacrificed one for the other.
Ultimately, the reader is left to make up their own minds about the emotional state
of the speaker at the end. Was the choice of the road less travelled a positive one?
 17

It certainly made all the difference but Frost does not make it clear just what this
difference is.

Analysis
Four stanzas, each of five lines in length (a quintrain), with a mix of iambic and
anapaestic tetrameter, producing a steady rhythmical four beat first person
narrative. Most common speech is a combination of iambs and anapaests, so Frost
chose his lines to reflect this:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
This simple looking poem, mostly monosyllabic, has a traditional rhyme scheme
of abaab which helps keep the lines tight together, whilst the use of enjambment
(where one line runs into the next with no punctuation) keeps the sense flowing.
The whole poem is an extended metaphor; the road is life, and it diverges, that
is, splits apart, forks. There is a decision to be made and a life will be changed.
Perhaps forever.
Tone/Atmosphere
Whilst this is a reflective, thoughtful poem, it's as if the speaker is caught in two
minds. He's encountered a turning point. The situation is clear enough - take one
path or the other, black or white - go ahead, do it. But life is rarely that simple.
We're human, and our thinking processes are always on the go, trying to work
things out. You take the high road, I'll take the low road. Which is best?
So the tone is meditative. As this person stands looking at the two options, he is
weighing up the pros and cons in a quiet, studied manner. The situation demands a
serious approach, for who knows what the outcome will be?
All the speaker knows is that he prefers the road less travelled, perhaps because he
enjoys solitude and believes that to be important. Or he's an individualist and
prefers to set his own agenda. Whatever the reason, once committed, he'll more
than likely never look back?
 18

On reflection however, taking the road because it was grassy and wanted wear
has made all the difference, all the difference in the worldi
The Road Not Taken suddenly presents the speaker and the reader with a dilemma.
There are two roads in an autumnal wood separating off, presumably the result of
the one road splitting, and there's nothing else for it but to choose one of the roads
and continue life's journey.
 The metaphor is activated. Life offers two choices, both are valid but the
outcomes could be vastly different, existentially speaking. Which road to take?
The speaker is in two minds. He wants to travel both, and is sorry he cannot, but
this is physically impossible so he ponders his options, looking down one of the
roads as far as he can, noting a bend, which seems to bring about an immediate
reaction.
The speaker opts for the other road and, once already on it, declares himself happy
because it has more grass and not many folk have been down it. And anyway, he
could always return one day and try the 'original' road again. Would that be
possible? Perhaps not, life has a way of one thing leading to another and before
anyone knows it, change has occurred, and returning is just no longer an option.
But who knows what the future holds down the road? The speaker implies that,
when he's older he might look back at this turning point in his life, the morning he
took the road less travelled, because taking that particular route completely altered
his way of being.
The Road Not Taken has entered the modern consciousness and one or two of its
lines are now embedded in the collective memory. Just think about 'the road less
travelled' and the title itself - both are often used in a confused way, which would
have pleased Robert Frost
 19

CHAPTER 3
THEME OF THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Robert Frost and The Road Not TakenThe Road Not Taken is an ambiguous poem
that allows the reader to think about choices in life, whether to go with the
mainstream or go it alone. If life is a journey, this poem highlights those times in
life when a decision has to be made. Which way to go?The ambiguity springs
from the question of free will versus determinism, whether the speaker in the
poem consciously decides to take the road that is off the beaten track or only does
so because he doesn't fancy the road with the bend in it. External factors therefore
make up his mind for him.Robert Frost wrote this poem to highlight a trait of, and
poke fun at, his friend Edward Thomas, an English-Welsh poet, who, when out
walking with Frost in England would often regret not having taken a different
path. Thomas would sigh over what they might have seen and done and Frost
thought this quaintly romantic.In other words, Frost's friend regretted not taking
the road that might have offered the best opportunities, despite it being an
unknown.Frost liked to tease and goad. He told Thomas : 'No matter which road
you take, you'll always sigh and wish you'd taken another.' So it's ironic that Frost
meant the poem to be light-hearted but it turned out to be anything but. People
take it very seriously.It is the hallmark of the true poet to take such everyday
realities, in this case the sighs of a friend on a country walk, and transform them
into something so much more.The Road Not Taken is all about what did not
happen - this person, faced with an important conscious decision, chose the least
popular, the path of most resistance. He was destined to go down one, regretted
not being able to take both, so he sacrificed one for the other.Ultimately, the
reader is left to make up their own minds about the emotional state of the speaker
at the end. Was the choice of the road less travelled a positive one? It certainly
made all the difference but Frost does not make it clear just what this difference
is.The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could
 20

not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I
couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And
having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as
for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that
morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for
another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever
come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two
roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has
made all the difference.AnalysisFour stanzas, each of five lines in length (a
quintrain), with a mix of iambic and anapaestic tetrameter, producing a steady
rhythmical four beat first person narrative. Most common speech is a combination
of iambs and anapaests, so Frost chose his lines to reflect this:Two roads diverged
in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothThis simple looking poem,
mostly monosyllabic, has a traditional rhyme scheme of abaab which helps keep
the lines tight together, whilst the use of enjambment (where one line runs into the
next with no punctuation) keeps the sense flowing.The whole poem is an extended
metaphor; the road is life, and it diverges, that is, splits apart, forks. There is a
decision to be made and a life will be changed. Perhaps
forever.Tone/AtmosphereWhilst this is a reflective, thoughtful poem, it's as if the
speaker is caught in two minds. He's encountered a turning point. The situation is
clear enough - take one path or the other, black or white - go ahead, do it. But life
is rarely that simple. We're human, and our thinking processes are always on the
go, trying to work things out. You take the high road, I'll take the low road. Which
is best?So the tone is meditative. As this person stands looking at the two options,
he is weighing up the pros and cons in a quiet, studied manner. The situation
demands a serious approach, for who knows what the outcome will be?All the
speaker knows is that he prefers the road less travelled, perhaps because he enjoys
solitude and believes that to be important. Or he's an individualist and prefers to
set his own agenda. Whatever the reason, once committed, he'll more than likely
 21

never look back?On reflection however, taking the road because it was grassy and
wanted wear has made all the difference, all the difference in the worldiFurther
AnalysisThe Road Not Taken suddenly presents the speaker and the reader with a
dilemma. There are two roads in an autumnal wood separating off, presumably the
result of the one road splitting, and there's nothing else for it but to choose one of
the roads and continue life's journey.The metaphor is activated. Life offers two
choices, both are valid but the outcomes could be vastly different, existentially
speaking. Which road to take? The speaker is in two minds. He wants to travel
both, and is sorry he cannot, but this is physically impossible so he ponders his
options, looking down one of the roads as far as he can, noting a bend, which
seems to bring about an immediate reaction.The speaker opts for the other road
and, once already on it, declares himself happy because it has more grass and not
many folk have been down it. And anyway, he could always return one day and
try the 'original' road again. Would that be possible? Perhaps not, life has a way of
one thing leading to another and before anyone knows it, change has occurred,
and returning is just no longer an option.But who knows what the future holds
down the road? The speaker implies that, when he's older he might look back at
this turning point in his life, the morning he took the road less travelled, because
taking that particular route completely altered his way of being.The Road Not
Taken has entered the modern consciousness and one or two of its lines are now
embedded in the collective memory. Just think about 'the road less travelled' and
the title itself - both are often used in a confused way, which would have pleased
Robert Frost

Theme of The Road Not Taken is about how challenge draws us. We are attracted
to the opportunity to overcome obstacles. The road that hadn't been taken "wanted
wear". The process of our decision-making deals with weighing the obstacle and if
we are able to pursue something. We weigh what we know of our abilities. Frost
took the road after weighing the decision because it (the road) longed for him.
 22

IN "THE ROAD NOT TAKEN," WHAT DOES THE "YELLOW

WOOD" SYMBOLIZE

The poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost states that in life we come
upon many decisions, and there are points where we have to let fate take the lead.
“The Road Not Taken” uses two paths as a symbol of a life decision. To
understand this poem you have to have understanding of life’s meaning. The
author helps us better understand the message by his use of tone and literary
devices such as metaphors and symbolism. In this poem we come to realize that
life is a combination of decisions and fate. The two paths symbolize the life of the
traveler and all his life decisions. This poem expresses life, because in life, there
are important decisions that in some instances can make a really big change,
sometimes it’s hard to find your way out of something, and there are many
possible ways you can do it.
“Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim” are
verses where we can clearly see that this is a decision in to which he is putting a
lot of thought. Throughout the poem, we learn that there are two paths to take, but
the traveler, who we suppose is Robert Frost, is uncertain of which one to take.
We learn that this is really a life decision, and not just a choice between two paths.
Towards the end, there is a drastic change of the indecisive tone to a tone of
regret.
In this poem there is a line that is “I shall be telling this with a sigh”, Robert Frost
shows a sign of regret, meaning he made the wrong decision. Not all decisions
have to be clearly thought out or over-thought. In our lives sometimes we make
some wrong decisions too. By depending on time we can’t really lookup that why
we made mistake. In this scenario we have to be more careful about our decision.
The road we chooses is full of challenges and needs to be explored. In the
beginning we think we would choose a better path than previous path, but the road
never seemed to end. What we decide today is going to affect our future.
 23

Sometimes the decisions we make can be wrong but that is way better than
standing and not choosing anything.
In this poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost state that the roads are
considered to be a symbol of his life decisions. The fact the Frost chose to use this
symbol to portray the message makes us have a clear idea of what he is going
through. Towards the end of the poem, signs of regret shows, how in life a
decision can really impact your life and who you become as a person. By the end
of the poem, we have learned that the difficulty of choices is that sometimes you
really have to let fate take the lead. Those paths shows that it doesn’t matter which
side has been taken more but which is the best one for you.
Life is made up of choices. The choices people make in their lifetime not only
shape their life, but they can make or break it. Every once in a while a person is
offered a monumental decision that will decide the path of their entire life. Still,
knowing a choice needs to be made does not make it easy to decide. In this line,
“sorry…could not travel both”, Robert Frost does not know which road to take,
what decision to make. He only knows that he cannot travel both. However,
indecision is part of the beauty of life. Some of the best choices are result of
careful thought. A person does not always have to take the road of the ones before
them; they can take an entirely new path with an unknown future. We have to be
observant and to choose the correct path among the various paths life sets in our
way.
Robert Frost states that “ I took the one less travelled by, and that has make all the
difference”, The poem felt very connected to me as I have also had some difficult
times choosing the correct way or option in my life. One of those decisions was
coming to CityTech which I am sure I will never regret. Before coming to this
college I had been doing Associate first year in another community college. When
I got selected, many of my relatives and friends suggested me not to come here as
I was already going to another college. However, I chose to come here although I
knew that this way would be full of challenges. Now, I am also sure like the poet
 24

that the new challenges and struggles I will have to face here will make a
difference in my life. Hence, there are many options in our life and it is obvious to
be confused. We should be able to choose the correct path and move forward.
Once we choose to travel in one way, we cannot travel  back  in time and choose
the next one. So, we should be careful and observant while taking decisions and
choose the path which we will not regret.
Life is full of choices, some predetermined, some decided on the spot. The road is
really a metaphor explaining decisions that we make. Sometimes there are
monumental choices that will affect the rest of someone’s life, whether they know
it or not. The poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is about one of those
special moments where one choice will change the course of one person’s life. We
believes that depending on the road a person chooses, their life will turn out for
better off for worse. In this poem in which we learn that sometimes we have to let
fate take the lead. Life is a combination of decisions and fate. According to the
author, the two paths symbolize the life of the traveler and all his life decisions.
Every decision can really affect your life.
 25

CONCLUSION

Frost displays a greater variety of shadesand textures in his perception of

nature.His methodis economical and his tone ismuch less impassioned.He often
feels aclose kinship with nature verging onwarm friendliness. He is
notoverwhelmed though heis aware of themagic pull of nature. He tests
hiscourageand human worth when nature poses achallenge to his
manhood. He is consciousof thetensions not only between man andnature,
but alsobetween natural objectsthemselves, tensions whichconstitute thevery
process of nature.Nina Baynwrites, “Frost is interested in human truth in
nature;yet such truth need not be transcendental.’’Montgomery has rightly
observed thatFrost’s poetry is concerned with the drama of man innature.Prof.
Trilling has called Frost “a Terrifying poet‘’ while Robert Graves has called him
“a Master poet”
 26

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 "Robert Frost Collection". Jones Library, Inc. website, Amherst, Massachusetts.

Archived from the original on 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
 Jarrell, Randall. "Fifty Years of American Poetry." No Other Book: Selected Essays.
New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
 Jarrell, Randall. "To The Laodiceans." No Other Book: Selected Essays. New York:
HarperCollins, 1999.
 Jarrell, Randall. "Robert Frost's 'Home Burial.'" No Other Book: Selected Essays.
New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
 Leithauser, Brad. "Introduction." No Other Book: Selected Essays. New York:
HarperCollins, 1999.
 Nelson, Cary (2000). Anthology of Modern American Poetry. New York: Oxford
University Press. p. 84. ISBN 0-19-512270-4.
 Jarrell, Randall. "Fifty Years of American Poetry." No Other Book: Selected Essays.
HarperCollins, 1999.
 "Birches by Robert Frost". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
 McGrath, Charles. "The Vicissitudes of Literary Reputation." The New York Times
Magazine. 15 June 2003.