The Road Not Taken 

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BY ROBERT FROST

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.

The Road Not Taken Summary

This article deals with the Road Not Taken summary written by Robert Frost and published in the year 1916. The Road Not Taken Summary is a poem that describes the dilemma of a person standing at a road with diversion. This diversion symbolizes real-life situations. Sometimes, in life too there come times when we have to take tough decisions. We could not decide what is right or wrong for us.

Driven by our hopes and ambitions, we take a decision taken by fewer people. We think that if fail to seek accomplishments we could get a chance to change and start again. However, we travel too far and have to regret at the end. Also, it is possible that we could become an extraordinary person because of that one decision. Thus, the road not taken summary focuses on making wise decisions in life.

The Road Not Taken Summary in Short

The article is all about the Road Not Taken Summary by Robert Frost. It explains about the road not taken summary in short. This poem signifies a situation where the poet was walking down a road that had a diversion. He had to choose between the two paths. Since he was a single person, he could choose only one of the two paths. The wood was yellow which represents a world full of people who have been residing for many years.

The poet kept standing at that fork and looked at the paths very carefully. He looked as far as he could. Before moving forward on one path, he wants to understand how it was. Was it suitable for him to walk on it or not? He was able to see the path till from where it got curved. However, afterward it was covered with trees and thus was hidden. He wanted to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the paths.

The same happens in life too. We have to make decisions thinking about its good and bad consequences in the future.

The poet looked at one path for a long time to decide whether it’s good or not for him. Then he takes the alternative path as he feels that both paths are equally good. He feels that the path he chose was better for him. The path was grassy which depicted that it was walked over by fewer people and also, it was ‘wanted wear”.

It depicted that the path was unused. However, as he walks on the path for some distance, he realizes that both the paths were similarly worn out. Even in our life, every decision has its own good and bad consequences. We might think we are in a better position than the others but it is not the reality.

The poet says that the two paths looked similar that morning. Both were having leaves on them.  No one stepped on that and thus they were green. He decided to move forward on one path and keep the other for another day. Although he knew that he would not be able to return back as one path would lead to another. This happens in life too. We make a decision and move forward in that direction. We think that we would get a chance to start over again if we fail. But that does not happen.

The poet says that sometime in the future, he will take a deep breath and tell that once in a lifetime he had to take a tough decision. He was standing at a diversion of two roads. Both looked to him equally well. Thus, he decides to move forward on the road which fewer people took. As a result, it has made him what he is today. That one decision shaped his future.

Similarly, in the future, when we grow up, and then we have to say that once upon a time when you were in your youth, you have to take tough decisions. The choice made by you had made you what you are today. Thus, the article of the poem the road not taken summary gives a very strong message to the people.

It tells us to be careful in making decisions in life. One should be very wise and careful while making choices as our choices shape our future. Also, once we make a decision, it is very difficult to change and start again. One bad decision could make us regret it throughout life. All this depends on the choices we make today.

Short questions:

The Poem's Theme

It is a poem about the journey of life. The two roads diverged in a yellow wood forest symbolizing a person's life. The narrator's choice about which road to take represents the different decisions we sometimes must make and how those decisions will affect the future.

Poetic Devices: Alliteration: Repetition of 'f' sound in 'first' and 'for'. Repetition: The word 'way' has been repeated twice. Imagery: The poet gives a beautiful description of both the roads that morning.

The road in the poem is a metaphor for life and the path we take through it. The fork in the road is a metaphor for the choices we must make as we navigate our path.

Personification: Robert Frost has personified road in the third line of the second stanza. Here, it is stated “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” as if the road is human, and that it wants to wear and tear.

The tone of sadness and regret in Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken”, creates an emotional roller coaster that everyone has been on and can relate to. The poem depicts a man forced to make one of the biggest decisions of his life through the use of allegory and ironic tone.

The two roads symbolize the choices that one has to make in life. It is very important to make the right choice because we can never retrace our path and go back. One road would lead on to another and there is no coming back.

 

Frost claimed that he had taken the road which less traveled by which caused the difference in his life. It seems that he was proud with the things he had done. He repeated the word —I“ twice which shows his reader that he is ”the one', not anyone else, who dare the hard challenge.

  

Personification samples:

·         Lightning danced across the sky.

·         The wind howled in the night.

·         The car complained as the key was roughly turned in its ignition.

·         Rita heard the last piece of pie calling her name.

·         My alarm clock yells at me to get out of bed every morning.

 

Well, most obviously, the yellow wood in Frost's poem symbolises autumn: the wood is yellow because the leaves – once green during the fulness of spring and summer – have turned yellow as summer has given way to autumn

 

Imagery is used throughout the poem, The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost. Some good examples of this are: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry that 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.

 

In "The Road Not Taken," the road symbolizes life and the choices that we make. When the road splits into two, the poet is required to make a decision with little knowledge of what lay ahead.

"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.

There is relatively little alliteration (use of the same sound or letter at the beginning of adjacent words) in The Road Not Taken. The only example I found was a the end of the middle line of the second verse: "wanted wear".

 

Analysis of Literary Devices in “The Road Not Taken”

The analysis of literary devices explains the hidden meanings of a literary text or a poem. The use of literary devices is intended to bring richness and clarity to the text with different meanings. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is also filled with important undertones with the following literary devices.

1. Metaphor: There are many metaphors in the poem like road, fork in the road and yellowwoods. The road in the poem is the metaphor of life, while the fork on the road metaphorically represents the choices we make to determine the course of our lives. Similarly, yellow woods are the metaphor of making decisions during the hard times of a person’s life. These metaphors used in this poem emphasize the importance of different decisions we make in different situations and their impacts on our lives.

2. Imagery: Imagery is used to make the readers feel things through their five senses. The poet has used images of the sense of sights such as leaves, yellowwoods and  These images help readers to actually perceive things they are reading. The image of the road helps readers to visualize the road providing a navigation route to the traveler.

3. Simile: A simile is a device used to compare things with familiar things to let the readers know it easily. There is one simile used in the second stanza such as “as just as fair”. It shows how the poet has linked the road less taken to the easy way through life.

4. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds such as the sound of /a/ and /o/ in quick succession in “though as far that the passing” and in “Somewhere ages and ages hence.”

5. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds such as /d/ in “two roads diverging in a yellow wood” and /t/ sound in “though as far as the passing there.”

6. Personification: Robert Frost has personified road in the third line of the second stanza. Here, it is stated “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” as if the road is human, and that it wants to wear and tear.

7. Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of a source of words, phrases or sentences that have similar grammatical forms. Frost has used Parallelism in the poem such as;

“And sorry I could not travel both”

“And be only one traveler long I stood”

“And looked down once as far as I could”

 Concluding the literary analysis, it can be argued that Robert Frost has beautifully used various literary devices to make the poem display multiplicity of interpretation which has gained the poem much deserved popularity.