Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is a symbolic poem of the complications people must face in the course of their lives.   Although it is not difficult to understand the meaning of the poem through it’s title, it is however hard to interpret what the author means when he describes the roads.   Throughout the poem, the two roads appear similar at times and different at others.   He uses free imagery to make his poem more complex for the audience.  



In the first stanza, Frost attempts to do many things: he illustrates the setting; he describes the roads; and he explains the significance of the roads. The setting of the poem is drawn in a yellow wood, which suggests that it is autumn.   In the following line, “And I’m 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”, the narrator shows his regret that he could only take one (Frost,HO). This demonstrates to the reader that the roads are of great importance, and because he can only travel one it will leave him forever wondering about what it would be like if he had took the other.   The narrator spent a lot of time choosing which path to take.  



After he studied the first road cautiously, he examined the second one.   At first he is more attracted to the second road because “it was grassy and wanted wear” which meant that it was less traveled by (Frost,HO).   To say that the path “wanted wear” is a personification (Frost,HO).   It gives the road the human characteristic of wanting.   After evaluating both roads, he decides that they are equal.   He then states that they are really worn about the same.   This gives the reader something to think about.   If the two roads were utterly diverse, they would each give the speaker different reasons to choose them.   He would be able to draw an easier conclusion based on his judgment. Although the two roads appear to be exactly alike, they each may hold different...