The Road Not Taken

Analysis of "The Road Not Taken" by Robery Frost

Robert Frost is the author of the poem The Road Not Taken, he is a man of many faces. He has written poems and books explaining why humans are the way they are. Unfortunately, it seems to me that this leads to a generalization of the human species as a whole. Along the way in his writings he has made blanket statements about human nature and what he believes is the right way to go about choices and crossroads in life. Also, he has established himself as a great metaphorical writer on many levels. He has written works that deal on religion and politics but never really saying exactly what it's about. This makes the reader need to look deep into the rhetoric and past the surface, just look into the real soul of the piece.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood." From the beginning sentence one can understand that the person who wrote this poem is a very deep thinker. It is marked with symbolism and metaphorical thinking, The symbolism in this paragraph explains the choice between two of life's many options. It's directly related to fate in that there are only two roads that can be traveled. The diverging is symbolic of the distancing between the two decisions. Both are far apart, yet they started from the same point. The person speaking (the author) says that he looks down both the paths, trying to see where they may lead but he can only see so far. Eventually the underbrush of both paths shrouds the rest of the path including its ending. The author uses weird ways to rhyme the words. It doesn't have a lot of rhythm to it, it's very hard to read this the first time and understand it completely. He also uses a very interesting sentence structure; it's divided into two distinct parts. The first part being a vague statement, the other becoming more specific.

The author says that he makes the decision to take one of the roads, although not saying exactly which one. He chose the one because he thought at the time that it was better looking, more pure and easier to look at and travel. But then he goes on to look at the other path and notices that they both look about the same. The author uses a great deal of metaphors, I mean after all he's talking about a main theme of which choice in life he should make.

Within the third stanza, the author becomes confused for he's second-guessing himself.