y Evening – AnalysisRobert Lee Frost (born in San Francisco, March 26, 1874 and died in Boston, January 29, 1963) was one of America’s leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Although his verse forms are traditional, he was a pioneer in the interplay of rhythm and meter and in the poetic use of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday speech. His poetry is thus both traditional and experimental.
After Frosts father died in 1885, the family left California and settled in Massachusetts. From 1897 to 1899 he attended Harvard College as a special student, but left without a degree. Over the next ten years he wrote (but rarely published) poems, operated a farm in Derry, New Hampshire (purchased for him by his grandfather), and supplemented his income by teaching. In 1912 he sold the farm and used the proceeds to take his family to England, where he could devote himself entirely to writing. His efforts to establish himself and his work were almost immediately successful. A Boy’s Will was accepted by a London publisher and brought out in 1913, followed a year later by North of Boston.
In 1924 he received a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for New Hampshire (1923). He received it again for Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), and A Witness Tree (1942). Over the years he received an unprecedented number and range of literary, academic, and public honors. 1The Road Not TakenAlthough I must admit that I am not a poetry fan, many of the poems of Robert Frost appeal to me, and this would have to be the one that appeals the most, in other words, it is my favorite poem.
When I first read this poem, I liked it because of its free verse style (which I like) and its apparent simplicity, but, after much study, its true meaning became apparent. The obvious basic meaning is that the poem is about a persons choices in life. The narrator describes coming to a problem with the fork in the road. He must go down one but feels he will not be able to take back his decision. He looks to see the pros and cons of each choice, and then takes the one that he says the least had traveled.
He leaves the outcome up to the reader and the sigh at the end can be taken as good or bad. This leaves the reader the choice of deciding whether it is better to conform with society or rebel like Frost did and take up a less stable trade. However, there are many places to which this main interpretation can branch out. First of all, it is likely that the narrator in the poem was actually Frost. This can be inferred because the narrator took the road less traveled by.
This can also be said of Frost using different diction. Frost had an opportunity to graduate from Harvard twice, but each time turned it down until he was granted an honorary degree after excelling as a poet. The average person would probably have just stuck through Harvard the first time around and graduate and then chosen a more stable career. Thus the similarities between Frost and the narrator of the poem can be seen.
The fork symbolizes a hard choice in Frost’s life and he can take either the easy way out, or the hard way. Each path to him is the same and he is sad that he can only choose one path, but in the end he takes the one less traveled by or the harder one. Perhaps this poem is meant to be inspirational to young writers. Another viewpoint actually goes towards a more basic meaning. This would be that Frost actually chose one path and took it, whereas many people simply ponder for a long time and still are not quite sure.
Frost exhibits the common human nature of wanting to take both paths at first (ln13: Oh I marked the first for another day), but later admits he doubted if he should ever come back (ln15). Thus, the poems significance is Frost made his decision and .
