The Road Not Taken – 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.
Robert Frost on his own poetry:
"One stanza of 'The Road Not Taken' was written while I was sitting on a sofa in
the middle of England: Was found three or four years later, and I couldn't bear
not to finish it. I wasn't thinking about myself there, but about a friend who had
gone off to war, a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn't
go the other. He was hard on himself that way."
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 23 Aug. 1953
ABOUT THIS POEM:
meaning:
The literal meaning of this poem by Robert Frost is pretty obvious. A traveler
comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his
journey. After much mental debate, the traveler picks the road "less traveled by."
The figurative meaning is not too hidden either. The poem describes the tuogh
choices people stand for when traveling the road of life. The words "sorry" and
"sigh" make the tone of poem somewhat gloomy. The traveler regrets leaves the
possibilities of the road not chosen behind. He realizes he probably won't pass
this way again.
devices:
There are plenty literary devices in this poem to be discovered. One of these is
antithesis. When the traveler comes to the fork in the road, he wishes he could
travel both. Within the current theories of our physical world, this is a non
possibility (unless he has a split personality). The traveler realizes this and
immediately rejects the idea.
Yet another little contradiction are two remarks in the second stanza about the
road less traveled. First it's described as grassy and wanting wear, after which he
turns to say the roads are actually worn about the same (perhaps the road less
traveled makes travelers turn back?).
personification:
All sensible people know that roads don't think, and therefore don't want. They
can't. But the description of the road wanting wear is an example of
personification in this poem. A road actually wanting some as a person would.
However: some believe this to be incorrect and believe "wanting wear" is not a
personification, but rather older English meaning "lacking". So it would be
"Because it was grassy and lacked wear;".