Analysis of the Road Not Taken

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Jonathan Kocian English IV AP 1st period. Analysis of Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken In his poem The Road Not Taken, the poet is walking alone on a road, which splits into two paths. He contemplates the two paths and their merits, but each one has been walked on. So he goes on the one he says is “less traveled” and says “it has made all the difference.” But has it? Several critics have called that statement a “mitigation”, if not an outright lie. The poem is usually interpreted to mean, at first glance, to promote making one’s own trail, to make choices that don’t mesh with the crowd. But if one takes a look at the full meaning of the poem, one can see that it is an excuse for life’s major decisions. Originally, Frost sent the poem to a friend and fellow writer, Edward Thomas, as a “gentle mocking of indecision”, before publishing it. Thomas took it to be an encouragement to enlist in the war, and did so. Two years later, he died in the Battle of Arras. Frost expressed dismay and chagrin that his poem had been taken so seriously, not just by his friend, but by the rest of its audience. It had been intended partially as a poke at some of their walks, during which Thomas would try to take the lead, expecting “rare wild flowers or birds’ eggs,” and being disconcerted and dismayed when no such items revealed themselves. Frost commented humorously on Thomas’s inability to find satisfaction at the end of the walk, saying, “No matter which road you take, you’ll always sigh, and wish you’d taken another.” This seems to be where the poem got its start. Frost starts out by saying, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” This is meant to represent life’s decisions; we prefer to know what each choice will lead to, but we cannot truly understand the full ramifications of our selections. Even if we determine that the choice we made was probably the best one, we

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