Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Robert FrostÆs most well-known poem, The Road Not Taken, uses symbols in the form of two divergent paths in the woods. These paths symbolize the existential nature of human existence. Existentialists recognize the fact that human destiny is totally based on human choice and action. Each choice and action made by the individual will result in a separate, different, and necessarily limiting outcome. The outcome is necessarily limiting, because each choice we make prevents us from making to one degree or another other choices. FrostÆs poem beautifully symbolizes this dilemma. The poem begins by describing the wooded setting in front of the speaker, one that presents him with ôtwo roads divergedö (Frost 1919, 1). While initially we may feel the speaker is literally describing two roads in the woods, by the end of the poem we come to see these roads symbolize the limiting and personal nature of human choices, ôI took the one less traveled by, /

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ear as attractive but whose outcomes also remain unknown. Both roads look about as fair as one another, though one is a little grassier and wants wear. Even so, the speaker informs us, ôThough as for that, the passing there / Had worn them really about the sameö (Frost 1919, 1). In the third stanza, the speakerÆs emotions overtake him somewhat as he basically plunges into life and makes his choice. He exclaims, ôOh, I marked the first for another day!ö (Frost 1919, 1). By using this form of punctuation, the poet reinforces the often poignant and emotional aspects of making life choices as fragile human beings with little ability to predict their outcome. The speaker also shows more sadness over his inability to follow two decisions at once, mirroring his sadness over his inability to walk two roads at once in the initial stanza, ôYet knowing how way leads on to way / I doubted if I should ever come backö (Frost 1919, 1). The images in The Road Not Taken lend to the emotions experienced by the speaker as he comes to the recognition and awareness of what the roads symbolically means to him and his life. As X. J. Kennedy (1982) explains, ôThough the term image suggests a thing seen, when speaking of images in poetry we gener
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Approximate Word count = 1304
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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