Analysis: The Road Not Taken Essay

The poem I have chosen is “The Road Not Taken,” written by Robert Frost. The reason I chose this poem is because I believe this poem has stood out from the others. While reading the poem, the lyrics drew my attention. It made me realize that this poem is real, an everyday thing. “ The Road Not Taken,” is about a person and how the choice they have made has affected their life. Choices affect you and all your other decisions that you may face later on in life. This made me feel like everything has a purpose. You set your own choices and you decide where the path will take you. I chose “The Road Not Taken,” because it is truly based on human life. Every human has come to a place where they have more than one choice and they don’t know what…

Robert Frost is trying to guide us into understanding that the choices you make affect everything in your future. The poem states, “ 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…Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever go back…. I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” He has come to a fork in the road (his mind) where there are two paths he could possibly take but he can only choose one. He has no idea which path to take, so he chooses the path he thinks is best. The role that “place” plays in this poem is the thought of how one’s choice affects their life. When people say, “Everything happens for a reason,” do they really mean it? Or are they just saying it to appease someone else? I do not believe everything happens for a reason. I believe the choices you make throughout your life all build up to affect one another. For example, if you choose to sit around and do nothing while your young rather than get and job and have physical activity, which keeps you healthy, you will end up facing the consequences when you get older. You may not be as healthy or as thin as you could be. You could face pain in your joins and maybe even pass away sooner than you would if you would have just gotten up and made something of your life. Everything depends on you. It’s your choice, your…

Many people would have made chosen to take the path that has been taken more often, knowing they will be safe and their deeds will go unnoticed. I would have taken the path less traveled by too, but not everyone makes the same choices. This is why there are both bad and good people in the world. Hopefully someday the good will weigh out the bad and all will be equal. The author used poetic devices to make the poem seem more real. Even though choices are already real. In the first line the poet gave am example of assonance. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The ‘O’ sound is repeated in “roads” and “yellow.” He also gave an example of personification. In the eighth line the text states, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear.” He gave a human characteristic to a non-living thing. He was saying the path wanted wear but only living things like humans, animals and plants can want. The poem as a whole could be considered a metaphor. The poet was comparing the paths in life to the choices one must make. This poem speaks of the actual choices in one’s life, as roads one must choose to take. The roads represent your choices in…