The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost: The Path To Life And Our Daily Choices
Road Not Taken depicts two roads of whom are similar and one is confronted by a choice of which among the two should one choose. The similarity of the roads probes the individual to use their free to literary opt towards one path. The direction the reader chooses seals his fate. The uncertainty and lack of clarity by presented begs the question of how the reader ways his options when choosing life opportunities. The poem literally prompts the reader to be decisive and determined to grab life opportunities without fear of guilt and remorse. Many a times the path to life is often unclear and filled with hurdles that ought to make us feel unworthy and doubtful.
Life is fair for everyone. It levels the plain field for everyone to get a fair chance for the bid of success. This Poem gives a clear description of a visual of both roads but what lies ahead after you finish your journey is different from what the Reader would have found if he took the other path. As the lines read, to where it bent in the undergrowth;” then took the other, just as fair”. What this means to the Reader is that the decisions we make in life do not have a straight trajectory for one to know where that decision landed and what to expect for the future. Robert Frost has a vivid imagination which he uses to teach life’s daily lessons. Opportunities in life will always come and go and it’s up to the individual to assess if they can measure up as the challenges come their way. The speaker as he walks down he is encountered by a difficult inconvenience when the road he was walking diverges into two paths separated by Yellow wood and when he tries to down the paths, the path straight ahead is undefined, no clear way to see what awaits at the end. What the speaker means is that the future as we expect it is untold and not straight forward. Along the way there are turns and twist that hinders one from achieving their endeavors.
The Reader’s path to life has never been walked by any other soul. No mortal being can truly tell the other what their future holds. Everyday decisions make for a huge part in modeling and shaping the future. The lines of the Poem attest to this as the writer says observes that the passing on both roads had undisturbed leaves laying on the ground on that morning. He describes the first road as undergrowth having a better claim while the other one to be overwhelmed by bushes and not having a lot of travelers passing through. The roads are very confusing at site with no surety for the best choice. The same way the roads are confusing is the same life choices manifest and the Reader duty to take one but both the choices presented.
Whatever the Path one chooses to follow, what matters is that the Reader made a decision and saw it through and this single decision impacted change in his life. The factual lines stating that the speaker, in some years to come would be telling tales of how he decided to choose one of the roads and how much difference his life has experienced. The persona of the Poem life has been purely shaped by decisions he has made in his lifetime whether he decided to take the road with high rise grass or the one that had undergrowth and showed much prominence over the other. The speaker still is disturbed by the choice he opted out of for his entire life. The title of the Poem sheds light on this, “The Road Not Taken” and that the speaker is filled with a guilt conscious as is revealed by the line where he narrates of how he is going to tell stories with a sigh. Expounding more on this is that people always regret forgoing decisions from Investments, things they haven’t achieved but were in a position to do so earlier in their life.
Road Not Taken is brief but carries deeper meanings in within its subtext and also literal meaning. It can be used in a global perspective in many areas for example it can make nations to make choices for the interest of its citizen based purely on clear facts and not blindly. Everyday lives of individual are challenged by hurdles that threaten the sanity of decision making skills
Which leads people not to make any decisions at all. People can only go so far to explore opportunities coming their way and most of them effortlessly slip out of our hold and grasp and there is nothing we can do about it but to watch. The Speaker portrays a dilemma, how an individual is conflicted on which choice to make, what makes or drives a person to make the decision they have made. Robert Frost has been accredited by other scholars for the messages his Poems pose to the Reader.
To sum up, the Poem tries not to demystify nor doesn’t it try to ignore the choice an individual makes but appreciate their willingness to take a gamble and choose one path. This shows the determination and efforts that is within us. In eventuality all the choices individuals make all lead to a different path for each one of them. This cohort the analogy that different individuals have different destinies and what awaits us at the end of the tunnel has everything to do with the way we lived our lives. The Speaker is still hopeful and would want to revisit that first road, the one that got away, and the one he didn’t get to travel through. As he writes Oh, I kept the first for another day. The financial decision that could have tripled his worth but never made, the world is full of endlessly possibilities and one can only accomplish so much as an individual. This literature piece shares a very in depth meaning to individuals as it unravels or make an individual to be aware of the depths and lengths one is willing to take when put in a corner, stranded forced to make an aggressive move towards major breakthrough in life. The Poem also speaks of character and personalities that are unique and different per head. The society itself is a manifestation of daily life choices that people make in their lives. Such is the gist of the Poem. What determines a person position in the society is their choices.
