The Road Not Taken Analysis

[Caraway]

Could you please explain the poem the Road Not Taken by Robert Frost? I read a popular analysis and I am not sure I agree.

 

Poem:

 

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

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

:bigear:

[Mrs Mungo]

It is purposefully ambiguous, sly, ironic and sad. Robert Frost once said of it "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem - very tricky."

 

It was written for his friend and fellow writer, Edward Thomas. It started off as a friendly jab at their walks together and the comments from Thomas that he wished they had taken another path because he wanted to see this or that. Thomas later died fighting in WWI.

 

"And that has made all the difference." Has it made any difference?

 

Do we know? Does the figure in the poem know?

 

What sort of sigh is it?

 

It's usually read to be optimistic and to be non-conformist. Is that what it's about?

 

The first part is gentle jibing at his friend. The last stanza is the key to the poem.

 

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.

 

The figure doesn't yet know if it's made any difference. He is imagining that it has with a young person's eyes and optimism. But Frost didn't write this poem when he was young and optimistic. He's being ironic. Every young person thinks they are going on a new, unexplored path and imagine they will have a life that is different and unique.

 

eta: Is that what the analysis said, or did it say something different? Now I am curious. :D

 

e(again)ta: You can hear Frost reading the poem here.

 

Here is something else Frost said to someone who had written him about the poem:

You get more credit for thinking if you restate formulae or cite cases that fall in easily under formulae, but all the fun is outside saying things that suggest formulae that won't formulate - that almost but don't quite formulate. I should like to be so subtle at this game as to seem to the casual person altogether obvious. The casual person would assume I meant nothing or else I came near enough meaning something he was familiar with to mean it for all practical purposes. Well, well, well.

Edited July 13, 2010 by Mrs Mungo

[Caraway]

It is purposefully ambiguous, sly, ironic and sad. Robert Frost once said of it "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem - very tricky."

 

It was written for his friend and fellow writer, Edward Thomas. It started off as a friendly jab at their walks together and the comments from Thomas that he wished they had taken another path because he wanted to see this or that. Thomas later died fighting in WWI.

 

"And that has made all the difference." Has it made any difference?

 

Do we know? Does the figure in the poem know?

 

What sort of sigh is it?

 

It's usually read to be optimistic and to be non-conformist. Is that what it's about?

 

The first part is gentle jibing at his friend. The last stanza is the key to the poem.

 

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.

 

The figure doesn't yet know if it's made any difference. He is imagining that it has with a young person's eyes and optimism. But Frost didn't write this poem when he was young and optimistic. He's being ironic. Every young person thinks they are going on a new, unexplored path and imagine they will have a life that is different and unique.

 

eta: Is that what the analysis said, or did it say something different? Now I am curious. :D

 

e(again)ta: You can hear Frost reading the poem here.

 

Here is something else Frost said to someone who had written him about the poem:

 

 

THANK YOU for taking the time to write that all out! It helped a lot.

 

The context - friend, age, etc - seems to give a lot to the poem.

 

The other analysis included the idea that neither path was less traveled - making taking the less traveled not an option. Further that the poem was concerned with how the narrator would describe (in the future) the present (the paths) in a way that was inaccurate (I took the less traveled) and that the sigh was because he knew it to be a lie.

[Mrs Mungo]

THANK YOU for taking the time to write that all out! It helped a lot.

 

No problem! :D

 

The other analysis included the idea that neither path was less traveled - making taking the less traveled not an option. Further that the poem was concerned with how the narrator would describe (in the future) the present (the paths) in a way that was inaccurate (I took the less traveled) and that the sigh was because he knew it to be a lie.

 

I would agree with the bolded bit. That's sort of what I was saying above, every young person believes their path is unique, but they are wrong. There is no road "less taken." I don't know that I agree about the sigh. Hm. The way I read it the young voice believes they will sigh and be wistful about what a difference it made. But, they are wrong. I wouldn't say it's a lie, they're just mistaken about how they will feel in the future. IMO, the sigh is a wistful one, but it's only the dream of a wistful sigh. Does that make sense? But again, that's just how I read it and FWIW, in my college lit classes I saw this poem cause more fights than almost any other.