Poetry Month Spotlight: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

To continue with the theme of April being poetry month, Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" would is next up for analysis. Robert Frost is an American poet who first gained fame through his published works in England. This poem is a classic and known by most due to it's simplicity and Frost's ability to discuss a broader topic, with very few words, and nature imagery.

The Road Not Taken

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 structure of this poem consist of four stanzas each of which contain five lines (this is called a quintrain). The rhyme scheme in each is expressed through the format of ABAAB which is common for quintrains as it reads fluidly to most English speakers/readers. The poem also makes use of enjambment, a literary device that disregards traditional punctuation. Frost uses this so that lines may flow in a way that they are read similarly by his audience.

While seemingly ambiguous through the first read, provided a little context, the poem is fairly easy to understand. Robert Frost wrote this poem in a way to poke fun at one of his friends who he would often go on walks with. The friend would often have regrets about potentially not taking one path over another on these walks. Frost uses this seemingly minor interaction as a platform to discuss one's freewill and the inevitable regrets one will face regardless of the "path chosen". For instance, in the opening stanza, the speaker states he/she is "sorry" they could not travel both paths presented before them. The poem is filled with words such as perhaps and other to emphasize that there was more than one option to take but in the end, we can either chose to stand at life's forks, or move forward on one of the paths. The most notable line and probably most widely known is the closing two "I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." This line demonstrates the conclusion that the speaker and Frost has come to in regards to the choices one makes in life. It is the idea that we do not know what the future holds and that is okay. You may look back at a life altering decision in life and realize you cannot go back, this does not have to be a negative thing.

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