It centers around the topic of choices. The narrator takes us through a once difficult decision that he is faced with and how he looks back on it afterward. The title of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” is vital to determining its theme. The title lends itself to the reader for both a literal and symbolic interpretation before any line is ever read. Often mistaken to be, “The Road Less Traveled,” the title focuses on an view that is almost nostalgic of the unknown destination of the road not taken rather than a objection to following others down a well used path.
These conclusions about the theme are further supported when one takes a look at the setting of poem. On one hand, there is a literal view where someone comes to a T in a road where they must make a decision on which way to go. This in itself lies on a decision that must be made, which may or may not make a difference on the final ending point of a Journey. After the first few stanzas, one can imagine that the narrator of the poem faced this dilemma. This person describes the two roads as virtually identical when they say, “then took the other, as Just as fair… Hough as for hat the passing there / Had worn them really about the same” (Frost, p. 689) On the contrary, it is obvious to see that the narrator portrays a very symbolic meaning to the audience. A visual that the fork represents a decision that must be made where each road leads to different destinations. A handful of lines provide metaphors that would support this, but it is the ones in the final two stanzas that really relay the message. The narrator says, “Oh, I kept the first for another day! / Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back” (Frost, p. 89).
The audience can see that there is a dilemma that is faced where these roads will probably lead in a direction where the narrator cannot return. The poem concludes with the statement, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and l- / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference” (Frost, p. 689). One can only conclude from these words that the decision to take one road rather than the other, has “made all the difference” (Frost, p. 689). While a majority of the symbolism is tied into the two roads that the narrator aces, there are a number of visuals that the author paints throughout this piece of work.
Readers can see this in the way the narrator describes the wood and roads. The wood is said to be yellow and the roads are covered in leaves. One can conclude that this Journey is taking place when the seasons are changing. This lends itself to a thought that in times of change, people are faced with decisions that could change their situation drastically. Again, while it may not be as significant as the symbolism of the roads, the fact that the narrator is traveling alone can lead to its own inclusions.
There will be times when one must make a choice based on only oneself perceptions and knowledge. Many people inquire advice for others but in this case there is no one else to offer up that advice. The setting not only sets the stage for the theme of this poem, but also sets the mood. Throughout the poem, the narrator is face with a predicament in which they must choose between two options that have presented themselves. During a majority of the poem, the narrator wrestles with the decision to choose one road over the other. Readers can feel the indecisiveness as the two roads are compared.
It seems as if the narrator is very conflicted about the decision that faces him yet the final stanza flips that around. The audience is now informed about how the narrator no longer struggles with the decision that was made but is pleased with the outcome. While faced with conflict, the narrator made a decision that has “made all the difference” (Frost, p. 689). With all of the literal and metaphorical lines in this poem, one could begin to think that it was put together in a very complicated way. On the contrary, the form of this poem is quite simply.
The poem itself consists of four quintal, which means there are five lines in each stanza. Each stanza is then consistent in its rhythm in which the first, third and fourth line end with a masculine rhyme which means the rhyme is consistent with one syllable words or stressed on the final syllable. The second and fifth line also finish with masculine rhymes. This poem by Robert Frost that symbolizes literal and metaphorical forks in the road, to which decisions that are made can have a drastic impact on an individuals fife can be related to by all.
