Poetry Explication of “The Road Not Taken” In “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, he depicts a person that comes to a decision that they had made in their past. They have a couple of choices, hence the two roads that were depicted in the poem. But the speaker is going deeper; he is facing two choices both having pros and cons in the decision and in the end the speakers decision affects them for the rest of their life. The speaker in the first line states that he is facing two roads, two choices.
How badly he wants to take both roads to see how things will be, so he looks down each path as far as he can see, so he sees what will affect him in his life, but he is not able to see all that is to offer from both paths, looking down the first the path: “And looked down as far as I could” it went behind trees and bushes and is gone: “To where it bent in the undergrowth. ” The next path he notices it is not trampled like the other and so he takes it. Both roads are covered in leaves that are not so much walked on at all, because the leaves are not trampled or “trodden” to the point that they were turning into dirt.
He keeps on the path as states in the third stanza, line four: “Yet knowing how way leads to way. ” As he continues on down the path he knows he can’t go back to certain points because they already happen in his life. The speaker explains to the reader that he will eventually tell this story when he gets old. He has two choices, two paths to take and having taken the path: “…less traveled by” it changes his life completely. The most significant part of the theme of this poem Frost uses metaphors. A metaphor is a comparison between two things that do not use the words like or as.
Frost uses the word road to describe that in life a person can have these paths or choices that they have to choose from as depicted in the first stanza. The person had a choice between: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. ” But like many decisions, a person can only choose from one of the two. It’s an easy poem to read and understand. The poem is all about a person having to make a decision in his life. People constantly have to make decisions, and may end up regretting the decision and learn from it, or the decision becomes one of the best things that could happen to a erson, but both choices can change their life forever. Another part Frost uses to add to his theme to his poem was color. He talks about a yellow wood. Leaves change colors in the fall. The person most likely had to make this decision when it is sometime in autumn of his life. There are black leaves that are on the ground that are “trodden. ” When leaves get walked on frequently they turn black from the dirt and they rot or deteriorate. So Frost is trying to show that the paths have been both used and walked on because the leaves were black. The Road Not Taken” is a wonderful poem in its entirety because Robert Frost keeps the theme throughout the poem. Frost just creates a colorful depiction of what two decisions can be like in life. It just reminds the reader, and the speaker, that there are paths to be taken in life and usually there are two separate choices. From each one a person can come up with only a limited amount of things that can be determined how it would affect a persons life, but in the long run a person will have to decide which one to take, which choice to choose from, and it will have some, if not, a great significant affect on ones life.
