The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
By: Daniel Jourdan
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; (5)
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, (10)
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back. (15)
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference (20)
Theme
Symbols
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. (1)
This fork in the road symbolizes how one has to make decisions in life. Everyone has two choices; either the easy way or the hard way.
I took the one less traveled by, (19)
The road that is less traveled by stands as a symbol for the more difficult path in life. Most prefer to take life easy and choose the other over this one. However, those that succeed on the difficult path tend to feel more rewarded.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: (17)
These lines symbolize the content the narrator will feel when looking back at the decision to take the more difficult road over the other.
Rhyme
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, ..., And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could (1) (3) (4)
The rhyming of these lines add emphasis to how the dividing roads symbolize the decisions in life.
Then I took the other, as just as fair, ... Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there (6) (8) (9)
Having the lines about the less traveled path rhyme also adds emphasis on how this path symbolizes how people tend to follow in everyone else's footsteps rather than make their own future.
ABAAB, CDCCD, EFEEF, GHGGH
The rhyme scheme of the poem repeats itself in each stanza. Therefore, emphasis is added to the symbols of roads as life decisions, grassy roads as more challenging life decisions, and not coming back to the fork in the road as not being able to change the past.
Personification
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (1)
Two roads are technically unable to diverge from each other, but writing that shows how there are always choices in life that will lead to two completely different outcomes.
Because it was grassy and wanted wear, (8)
Roads can not want anything, including wear. When Frost wrote about the road wanting wear, he showed the readers that even though taking the more difficult road in life isn't easier, somebody has to take the path at some time.
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. (11) (12)
Roads can not actually lay anywhere; however, writing that the roads lay equally in the morning shows readers that decisions in life are always there, and that everybody will have to make an important life decision at some point their life.