The
Road Not Taken
Robert Lee Frost
The
speaker is thinking about which road he should take. I can't say which road he
takes until I read the poem. The above picture shows that the poet is in
dilemma- it is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between
two or more alternatives.
This lesion focuses on:
1. About the Poet
2. Introduction to the Poem
3. Line by Line Explanation:
4. Analysis of the Poem:
# Speaker
# Setting
# Theme
a)
Choice
b)
Dream/Hope/Plans
c) Man
vs natural world
d)
exploration
About the Poet
·
He
was an American Poet,
·
He attended
Lawrence High School in Massachusetts and Dartmouth College,
·
·
He married to
Elinor White on 19 December 1895,
·
|
Robert Lee Frost 16 March, 1874, in San Francisco,
California, USA |
·
The Frost's firstborn son, Elliot, died of cholera in 1900.
After his death, Elinor gave birth to four more children: son Carol (1902), who
would commit suicide in 1940; Irma (1903), who later developed mental illness;
Marjorie (1905), who died in her late 20s after giving birth; and Elinor
(1907), who died just weeks after she was born.
·
In 1912, Frost and Elinor decided to sell the farm in New
Hampshire and move the family to England, where they hoped there would be more
publishers willing to take a chance on new poets.
·
Frost met fellow poets Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas, two men who would affect his
life in significant ways.
·
In 1915, Frost and Elinor settled down on a farm that they
purchased in Franconia, New Hampshire. There, Frost began a long career as a
teacher at several colleges, reciting poetry to eager crowds and writing all
the while.
·
He taught at Dartmouth and the University of Michigan at
various times, but his most significant association was with Amherst College,
where he taught steadily during the period from 1916 to 1938, and where the
main library is now named in his honor.
·
For a period of more than 40 years beginning in 1921, Frost
also spent almost every summer and fall at Middlebury College, teaching English
on its campus in Ripton, Vermont.
·
In the late 1950s, Frost, along with Ernest Hemingway and T. S. Eliot, championed the release of his
old acquaintance Ezra Pound, who was being held in a federal mental hospital
for treason due to his involvement with fascists in Italy during World War II.
Pound was released in 1958, after the condemnations were dropped.
·
In 1960, Congress awarded Frost the
Congressional Gold Medal. A year later, at the age of 86, Frost was
honored when asked to write and recite a poem for President John F. Kennedy's
inauguration.
·
On January 29, 1963, Frost died from complications
related to prostate surgery in Boston, USA
·
Introduction to the Poem
·
The speaker has come to a fork in a path in the
woods. It's fall, and the leaves are turning colors. He's unsure which way to
go, and wishes he could go both ways. He looks down one path as far as he can
see, but then he decides to take the other. He thinks the path he decides to
take is not quite as worn as the other one, but really, the paths are about the
same, and the fallen leaves on both look pretty fresh. The speaker reflects on
how he plans to take the road that he didn't take another day, but suspects
that he probably won't ever come back. Instead, far off in the future, he'll be
talking about how his decision was final and life changing.
·
·
Frost credited Thomas's long walks
over the English landscape as the inspiration for this poems, "The Road
Not Taken." Actually, Thomas's indecision and regret regarding what paths
to take inspired Frost's work. The time Frost spent in England was one of the
most significant periods in his life, but it was short-lived. Shortly after
World War I broke out in August 1914, Frost and Elinor were forced to return to
America.
·
The poet says that in the morning he comes to stop at a point
in the yellow woods where two roads are diverged or there are two roads
separated from one. This is similar to the career options in our life and we
have to choose one.
·
This poem is very much similar to his own writing career,
first his works were published in England thought he was born in the USA, and
later his works were published in the USA,
·
The poet wants to convey an important message to us that our
present determines our future, in other words, the career option we chose now,
determine what we shall become in the future. We must be very careful while
choosing the options because the wrong choice can ruing our life.
·
The opportunity comes at one to choose our career, so we
should ponder deep down at our career options
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 to 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.
Line by Line Explanation:
Stanza#1
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.
Line 1
Two roads
diverged in a yellow wood,
- This poem was first published in 1916,
when cars were only just beginning to become prominent, so these roads in
the wood are probably more like paths, not roads like we'd think of them
today.
- The woods are yellow, which means
that it's probably fall and the leaves are turning colors.
- "Diverged" is just
another word for split. There's a fork in the road where the speaking is
standing and thinking which way he should go ahead.
Lines 2-3
And sorry I
could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
- The speaker wants to go down both roads
at once, but since it's impossible to walk down two roads at once, he has
to choose one road.
- The speaker is "sorry"
he can't travel both roads, suggesting regret.
- Because of the impossibility of
traveling both roads, the speaker stands there trying to choose which path
he's going to take. Because he's standing, we know that he's on foot, and
not in a carriage or a car.
Lines 4-5
And looked down
one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
- The speaker really wants to go
down both paths – he's thinking hard about his choice. He's staring down
one road, trying to see where it goes. But he can only see up to the first
bend, where the undergrowth, the small plants and greenery of the woods,
blocks his view.
- This is where we start to think about
the metaphorical meanings of this poem. If our speaker is, as we suspect,
at a fork in the road of his life, and not at an actual road, he could be
trying to peer into his future as far as he can. But, since he can't
really predict the future, he can only see part of the path. Who knows
what surprises it could hold?
Stanza#2
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted to wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
Line 6
Then took the
other, as just as fair,
- So after all this build up about
one road, which he's looked down for a long time, our speaker takes the
other path.
- Then we get a tricky little phrase
to describe this road. It's "as just as fair." Read without the
first "as," this phrase is clear, if you think of fair as
meaning attractive, or pretty. But the first "as" makes the
phrase a little more difficult. Combining the words "just" and
"fair" in the same phrase is a play on words – both of these
words have multiple meanings. The phrase could mean something like
"as just as it is fair," as in proper, righteous, and equal. But
this doesn't quite apply to a road.
- Yet we trust that our speaker
wouldn't let things get awkward without meaning it. We're guessing that he
means the road is just as pretty, but that in the metaphorical world of
this poem, he thinks he made the fair, or right, choice.
- But it's not fairer – it's just as
fair. So he was choosing between two roads, or futures, that were different
but potentially equally good.
Lines 7-8
And having
perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
- The speaker still seems pretty
uncertain when he explains that this second path is better. It is only
"perhaps" better.
- Then the speaker tells us why the
path is better – it seems like it hasn't been walked on very much, because
it's grassy and doesn't look worn.
- Be careful not to think that the
phrase "wanted wear" is personification (it is alliteration,
though). "Wanted," in this instance, means something more like
"lacked."
Lines 9-10
Though as for
that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
- The speaker of this poem really
can't seem to make up his mind! Just when we think we've got a declaration
about which path is better, he changes his mind and admits that maybe they
were equal after all.
- The "as for that" refers
to the path being less worn.
- "The passing there"
refers to traffic, probably on foot just like our speaker, that may have
worn the paths down.
Stanza#3
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.
Lines 11-12
And both that
morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
- Here, again, we hear that the
paths are equal, but we find out something new, that it's morning. It's
possible that our speaker is the first to travel to this place on that
day.
- The paths are covered with leaves,
which haven't been turned black by steps crushing them.
- Wait, we thought one path was
grassy…and now it's covered with leaves. Possibly, the leaves aren't very
thick, or the grass sticks up in between them. Or maybe the speaker isn't
being quite honest.
Line 13
Oh, I kept the
first for another day!
- The speaker seems like he's
already regretting his decision. He is rationalizing his choice of path by
saying he'll come back to the one he missed later.
- This is a familiar way to deal
with difficult choices; "you can always come back and try it again
later," we think.
- With an "Oh" at the
beginning and an exclamation point at the end, this line is emphatic. The
speaker feels strongly about what he's saying here.
Lines 14-15
Yet knowing how
way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
- The speaker realizes that his
hopes to come back and try the other path may be foolish.
- He knows how "way leads on to
way" – how one road can lead to another, and then another, until you
end up very far from where you started. Because of this, he doesn't think
he'll ever be able to come back and take that other path, as much as he
wishes he could.
- Here we return to the metaphorical
meaning of this poem. In any life decision, we can hedge our bets by
thinking we can always come back, try a different option later. But
sometimes our decisions take us to other decisions, and yet still others,
and it's impossible for us to retrace our steps and arrive back at that
original decision.
- It's like deciding which college
to go to – "I can always transfer" a high school senior might
think. But then, once the decision is made and freshman year has passed,
the reality hits that switching schools is a lot more complicated than it
seems, and it's hard to start completely over somewhere else.
Stanza#4
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.
Lines 16-17
I shall be
telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
- Now we jump forward in time. We
don't know exactly when, but we know that it's ages and ages
"hence," or, from now. So we're probably talking years, not
months.
- We know that this story is
important, because the speaker will still be telling it many years later.
- He'll be telling it with a sigh,
though, which is interesting because sighs can be happy, sad, or merely
reflective – and we don't know what kind of sigh this is.
- So, we know that this choice is
probably going to be important for the speaker's future, but we don't know
if he's going to be happy about it or not.
Line 18
Two roads
diverged in a wood, and I—
- This line is a repetition of the
first line of the poem, with the subtraction of the word
"yellow" and the addition of the words "and I."
- This repetition helps to bring the
poem to a conclusion. It reminds us what's important in the poem – the
concept of choosing between two different paths.
- Then, we get the hesitation of
"and I" and the dash. This lets us know that whatever the
speaker is about to say next is important.
Line 19
I took the one
less traveled by,
- In this line, the speaker sums up
his story and tells us that he took the road less traveled by. With the
hesitation in the line before, this declaration could be triumphant – or
regretful.
- Also, remember it wasn't exactly
clear that the road our speaker took was the one that was less traveled.
He said at first that it looked less worn, but then that the two roads
were actually about equal.
- Before you start getting mad at
our speaker for stretching the truth, remember that he's telling his story
far in the future, a long time from when it actually happened. He's
predicting that his memory will tell him that he took the road less
traveled by, or that he'll lie in the future, no matter what the reality
of the situation was.
Line 20
And that has
made all the difference.
- At first glance it seems that this
line is triumphant – the narrator took the path that no one else did, and
that is what has made the difference in his life that made him successful.
- But he doesn't say that it made
him successful – an optimistic reader wants the line to read positively,
but it could be read either way. A "difference" could mean
success, or utter failure.
- Remember, the speaker is telling
us about what he's going to say in the future. From where he is now, just
looking down the path as far as he can see, he can't tell if the future
that it leads him to is going to be good or bad. He just knows that his
choice is important – that it will make all the difference in his life.
- The speaker of this poem could be
saying that his choice made all the difference while he's surrounded by
his grandchildren, by a fire in a cozy little house. Or he could be saying
it to the wind, while walking alone on the streets. At this point, he
doesn't know – and neither do we.
Analysis of the Poem:
The Speaker
Our speaker is a very conflicted guy. He doesn't tell us too
much about himself, but we know that he is facing a big decision; the road he's
walking on, and the life he's leading, is splitting into two separate roads up
ahead. Leaves are falling and the woods are yellow, so, if the woods are a
metaphor for the speaker's life, we can guess that he's somewhere in the fall
of his life, maybe his forties or fifties. In this stage of his life, it's
probably too late to go back and change his mind after he makes big decisions;
he knows that he probably will never have time.
The decision he's up against could be something like changing careers or moving
to a different place. He could just be having the typical mid-life crisis,
unsure if he likes where his life is going, even though he always thought he
would. Whatever the decision is, it must be major, because he knows that he'll
still be talking about it far in the future, saying that it made a big
difference in his life.
We can guess that he likes nature, because he's out in the woods, just
wandering around without a plan of where to go next. We know he's adventurous
and impulsive, because though he spends a long time contemplating one path, he
takes the other in a split second. He prefers to think that the path he takes
is less traveled, even though both paths are about the same, and thinks that,
in the future, he'll say that he took the path less traveled no matter what.
We're not sure if our speaker is happy or sad with the choice he's made. What
do you think? He might not know either.
Setting
Our
setting is in a forest, but it's not "lovely dark and deep" like the
woods in one of Frost's other famous poems, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening." Instead, these woods are just yellow, and our speaker is not,
like in the other poem, in a horse drawn cart, but on foot.
It's
fall in this poem – the trees are turning colors, and the leaves are falling.
It's probably quite pretty out, with the crisp smell of autumn in the air.
There's a nice little road, probably gravel or dirt, running through the woods,
which suggests that there's a good amount of traffic running through here. But
it's early enough in the morning that the fallen leaves are still fresh on the
road, and one road is even grassy. Neither road shows much sign of wear.
So
here our speaker is, in the fall without a map or a worn path to lead him on
his way. He studies the paths, but more to try and choose which one to take
than to appreciate their beauty. Overall, this setting would be a pretty nice
place to be, looking at the colors, choosing our path as we went, and walking
in the fresh air all day.
Themes:
a) Choice
"The
Road Not Taken" centers on the concept of choice. The path that the speaker
is walking on is splitting in two directions, and he has to decide which way to
go. This path is not just in the woods, but also represents a decision in his
life. Something in his life is changing, forcing him to make a choice. Yet he
has a really hard time deciding – one moment, he thinks one way is better, the
next, both paths are about the same. Whether or not he has a reason why the
choice he makes is better, he has to make it. And that choice changes his life.
b) Dream/Hope/Plans
Choices,
like the choice "The Road Not Taken," are linked to the future. The
speaker of this poem realizes that his choice of path will change his life. But
the tricky part about the nature of the future is that the speaker won't know
how his decision will change his life until it has already changed it. The
speaker thinks of his lost opportunities as his choice takes him into one
future and leaves another behind.
c) Man vs natural world
Throughout
"The Road Not Taken," nature is used as a metaphor for the life of
the speaker. The speaker contextualizes a major decision by writing about it as
if it were something he encountered while walking in a forest in the fall. This
metaphor helps us wrap our minds around the complexities of a choice that will
decide his future.
d) exploration
Our
speaker is out in the woods without a map, and he doesn't know which path to
take. But instead of turning tail and running back to where he came from, he
chooses a path and forges on, willing to face whatever challenges that path may
lead him to. He is attracted to a path that might be less traveled, which
suggests that he likes to go where few people have gone before. "The Road
Not Taken" embraces exploration, suggesting that the only way to see
what's beyond the bend in the road is to keep walking.
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