Thursday, August 15, 2013

Does one road seem to be more appealing than the other in "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost?

The grassy path seems to be a more desirable choice.


In the poem, the speaker comes to a place where a road diverges into two paths. He cannot take both, so he stops and looks at the paths. When trying to decide which path to take, they seem similar. Eventually, he decides one of the paths is better because it “wanted wear:”



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.



Both paths are covered in leaves. In this way, they again seem very similar. It is really a matter of perception and degree that the speaker seems to think one of them is “less traveled by” at that particular time. He decides to take that one. 



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. 



Apparently, this really was the more desirable road. It made a — presumably positive — difference in the speaker’s life. If you look at the poem as a metaphor for life, it seems the speaker came to a point when he had to make a choice between doing what others had done or branching out on his own. He chose to do something unique and different, and he later felt this was a good decision.


The speaker's point is that he made a choice, and he cannot return to the point in his life where he made that choice. We always have to decide what we will do, and this will affect how the rest of our lives turn out.

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