Every human throughout the course of their life is forced to make decisions. This aspect of life is true everywhere and has no time or cultural barriers. It is a fact of humanity. People are presented certain choices. Some much more significant then others. The choices people make distinguish who they are and give them individuality. Choices are never easy to make for many specific reasons. These choices decide a person’s fate. The timeless poem by Robert Frost “the road not taken” uses symbolism to explain this aspect of human life.
The poem tells us a situation of a man traveling on a journey arriving t the crossroads where he is presented two paths. He describes these paths in lines 4-7. The two paths he is torn between directly symbolizes decisions we are faced with in the journey of life. One of the roads is one in which he is capable of looking down, viewing the entire road to where it “bent to the undergrowth”. This road represents life’s easy way out. Because it has been more traveled by, it is a much more common and predictable way of going through life.
For the most part, if this road is chosen the outcome is predetermined and the traveler can rest at ease with the knowledge of the irection his life is heading. Everyone in life is presented the more common path. Many say the world is made up of leaders and followers. The followers take this path because it is the popular and easy way of achieving simple goals. The other, however, is covered with tall grass and has few trail marks or footprints. This is the road the writer decides to take, which, I believe shows remarkable things about his personality.
The people that avoid following group ideas and patterns are the people more likely to create change and make a difference in the world we live in. These people are willing to take chances and accept the consequences, should they fail. These people, for the most part are proud and creative. This world would be a completely different place if we were without risk takers. Every great achievement in history occurred because someone decided to take a different direction in order to create change. I greatly admire the writer for this and he should become something everyone strives to become.
I think the reason people in general take the easier path is because it helps them feel secure and aware of what the future holds for them. The challenging “grassy” road is far too dangerous and threatening to be taken by the average man, which is why it is less traveled by. This poem discusses a man’s decision at a turning point of his life. However, there is much more to it then that. The significance of this poem does not only lie in the road the man decided to take, but also in the one he refused, which is actually the title of the play “the road not taken”.
This is what makes critical decisions so difficult, because you often wonder what your life would’ve been like had you made other choices. Many times in ife, the choices you make are permanent. Something’s you will be proud of later in life, and some might be deeply regretted, but you will always stop to think to yourself, “what if? ” The writer talks about the thoughts running through his mind during the course of traveling the more challenging grassy path in lines 12-14.
Often in life during the time of a crucial decision, rarely do we realize the significance it has or the way it will effect our lives in years to come. As we grow older, we gain experience and wisdom. Only then is when we realize the importance of these decisions and the profound ffect it has had on our lives. The traveler depicted in this poem comments on this. He says he plans to travel the other road another day. However, in the back of his mind he realizes that day will never come because the path is permanent. The road he is taking, in turn will open up other crossroads, and different decisions in the future.
He realizes he cant turn back time to discover other options he previously rejected. So in this case, no matter what paths we choose, there is always an endless amount of choices we have turned away from. Had they been taken, our lives would have been haped in a completely different way and we would not be the people we are today. I believe this poem is about the life we never lived and the impossibility of ever knowing for sure how we could’ve turned out under different circumstances. In the last stanza, the writer acknowledges this with a sigh.
He has become an old man and is reviewing his life in his head, thinking about the days when he was young with his entire life ahead of him. I think he has many regrets but is also proud of the way he turned out. Road Not Taken Critical essay for “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, Because it was grassy and wanted wear: Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same.
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 to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Every human throughout the course of their life is forced to make decisions. This aspect of life is true everywhere and has no time or cultural barriers. It is a fact of humanity. People are presented certain choices. Some much more significant then others.
The choices people make distinguish who they are and give them individuality. Choices are never easy to make for many specific reasons. These choices decide a person’s fate. The timeless poem by Robert Frost “the road not taken” uses symbolism to explain this aspect of human life. The poem tells us a situation of a man traveling on a journey arriving at the crossroads where he is presented two paths. He describes these paths in lines 4-7. The two paths he is torn between directly symbolizes decisions we are faced with in the journey of life.
One of the roads is one in which he is capable of looking down, viewing the entire road to where it “bent to the undergrowth”. This road represents life’s easy way out. Because it has been more traveled by, it is a much more common and predictable way of going through life. For the most part, if this road is chosen the outcome is redetermined and the traveler can rest at ease with the knowledge of the direction his life is heading. Everyone in life is presented the more common path. Many say the world is made up of leaders and followers.
The followers take this path because it is the popular and easy way of achieving simple goals. The other, however, is covered with tall grass and has few trail marks or footprints. This is the road the writer decides to take, which, I believe shows remarkable things about his personality. The people that avoid following group ideas and patterns are the people more likely to reate change and make a difference in the world we live in. These people are willing to take chances and accept the consequences, should they fail. These people, for the most part are proud and creative.
This world would be a completely different place if we were without risk takers. Every great achievement in history occurred because someone decided to take a different direction in order to create change. I greatly admire the writer for this and he should become something everyone strives to become. I think the reason people in general take the easier path is because it helps them eel secure and aware of what the future holds for them. The challenging “grassy” road is far too dangerous and threatening to be taken by the average man, which is why it is less traveled by.
This poem discusses a man’s decision at a turning point of his life. However, there is much more to it then that. The significance of this poem does not only lie in the road the man decided to take, but also in the one he refused, which is actually the title of the play “the road not taken”. This is what makes critical decisions so difficult, because you often wonder what our life would’ve been like had you made other choices. Many times in life, the choices you make are permanent.
Something’s you will be proud of later in life, and some might be deeply regretted, but you will always stop to think to yourself, “what if? ” The writer talks about the thoughts running through his mind during the course of traveling the more challenging grassy path in lines 12-14. Often in life during the time of a crucial decision, rarely do we realize the significance it has or the way it will effect our lives in years to come. As we grow older, we gain experience and wisdom. Only hen is when we realize the importance of these decisions and the profound effect it has had on our lives.
The traveler depicted in this poem comments on this. He says he plans to travel the other road another day. However, in the back of his mind he realizes that day will never come because the path is permanent. The road he is taking, in turn will open up other crossroads, and different decisions in the future. He realizes he cant turn back time to discover other options he previously rejected. So in this case, no matter what paths we choose, there is always an endless amount of choices we ave turned away from.
Had they been taken, our lives would have been shaped in a completely different way and we would not be the people we are today. I believe this poem is about the life we never lived and the impossibility of ever knowing for sure how we could’ve turned out under different circumstances. In the last stanza, the writer acknowledges this with a sigh. He has become an old man and is reviewing his life in his head, thinking about the days when he was young with his entire life ahead of him. I think he has many regrets but is also proud of the way he turned out.
