Literary Review of 'The Road not Taken'
This is an essay in “The Road not Taken”. This was a poem that was written by Robert Frost in 1915 and depicts a traveler that is faced with a decision in which one of the two roads must be traveled. The traveler does not know where the roads may lead, to continue his journey, he must pick one road to continue down, he is faced with the possibilities of each road but eventually chooses one to travel down. The poem shows the readers that there are millions of decisions that we must take in life and sometimes there are choices that are best left to chance and to realize and that sometimes regret is inevitable.
“Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim” is a quote in which we can tell that he has given this decision a lot of thought. We discover throughout the poem that there are two roads to follow, but the traveler, who we assume is Robert Frost, is unsure which one to take. We discover that this is a life-altering decision, not merely a choice between two mediocre options. Toward the conclusion, the tone shifts dramatically from undecided to regretful.
The poet sighs and speaks in a sad tone about a period in his life. And I believe the tone of sadness is appropriate for such a poem, as seen by some of the poet's phrases and sentences, such as 'And sorry I could not travel both,' 'I doubted whether I should ever come back,' 'I shall be telling this with a sigh,' and so on. The speaker is speaking further on a feature of human nature. The poem is written in the first person and uses the pronoun “I” to personalize its meaning as a tool to have idea that the reader has direct access to the poet's thoughts and feelings.
Imagery in this poem is one of the most effective literary devices used by Frost. The narrator describes the view of what the traveler sees while in the forest. “Two roads diverged”, This quote implies that the traveler is somewhere deep into a quiet forest when discovering a road into the forest that diverges into two. “Bent in the overgrowth”, tells the reader how the traveler could see that the roads go so far into the horizon that the traveler could not see the end of them. One more example of imagery is when Frost writes of “Yellow Wood”, which explains that the scene happens on a bright fall afternoon. Imagery in this poem is so successful to the readers because it gives the idea of what the forest looks like to the reader.
Later in the poem, the traveler notices that both roads are almost the same in terms of wear. Then he says that it's impossible to switch back to the other way after one of the two has been taken. The poem is an extended metaphor in which he compares the human age in one of its stages to two paths in the forest, one of which must be chosen at some time. Forks in the road and paths in the woods are typical metaphors for life's crises and dilemmas. Forks have long represented the link between free will and fate.
Another literary device used by Frost is personification. In this poem, personification is used in this quote “because it was grassy and wanted”. This quote shows how the road gave the feeling of being untraveled and wanting. Frost wanted the readers to understand that decisions cannot be made without further assessment, and we all need to take our time making important decisions.
The poet utilized five basic phrases in each portion of his poem, and he did not follow the everyday use of grammatical use in most of the poem's stanzas. In his poem, Frost utilized capital letters at the beginning of each phrase. An example of this is found in the following quote, “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
He also used commas to show the continuation of the preceding concept, and the punctuation he employed was appropriate for the notion he expressed in each phrase. The title of the poem might relate to any route because it states that the speaker chooses the path 'less traveled,' which indicates the road that few people take. Frost does not adhere to established rules for creating poetry, and he does not use a single meter, rhyme, or rhythm in the poem. This structure, in my opinion, is perfect for this sort of poem. The poem's sequencing was temporary in the sense that it began at a certain moment and proceeded to the end of the event.
This poem's title is 'The Road not Taken,' not 'The Road Less Traveled.' This title choice indicates that Frost understands there was another option and regrets not having tried it. He is dissatisfied with the uncertainty. As a result, we learn that we must be cautious in making judgments so that we are pleased and comfortable with the person we have become, recognizing that the selections we made were not 'maybe' the best alternative.
