Poetry Explication

Student Name Here

Mr. Martin

ENG 102 MW

December 5, 2014

The Road Not Taken

Life is full of difficult decisions, and once a decision is made there is no way to

try again. In the poem The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost uses tone, diction, and imagery

to illustrate how people cannot make second attempts at life’s choices.

Frost uses tone in his poem to convey the difficulties people face when confronted

with a major decision, and the ever-present “what if” that occurs when such decisions

have been made. The narrator in the poem is faced with two roads in a forest, equally

intriguing, but only one path can be taken. Frost writes, “Two roads diverged in a yellow

wood / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler, long I stood,” (lns 1-3).

When a person is facing any kind of major decision in life both choices have their pros

and cons, and it is often difficult to choose the best way to go. Weeks or even years later,

that choice not taken is a source of wondering how things would have turned out if they

had gone the other way. Frost illustrates this when he says, “I shall be telling this with a

sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence” (lns16-7). It is human nature to wonder about all

the different ways a person’s life could have turned out if they had made different choices

in the past.

Diction is also used in the poem to convey how difficult it is to make the hard

decisions, even if they turn out to be rewarding in the end. Even if it looks like the choice

could be changed later on, there really is no way to go back. Frost states, “Oh, I kept the

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first for another day / Yet knowing how way leads on to way / I doubted if I should ever

come back” (lns13-5). Decisions have a way of branching off in different ways to other,

smaller decisions, at which point there is no way to return to that original point. Even

though sometimes a person may choose a harder path to go, it could turn out to be the

thing that changes their life for the best. Frost illustrates this when he writes, “Two roads

diverged in a wood, and I / I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the

difference,” (lns 18-20). A person may make the harder or less popular decision and even

though they can encounter obstacles and objections, in the end that decision may be the

most rewarding.

Imagery is used to show how even though similar decisions have been made by

countless others, at that point in time it is a unique choice to the person making it. When

faced with a fork in the road, the narrator sees that both paths have their different appeals,

but both look like they have been traveled about the same amount. Frost writes:

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had work them really about the same, (lns 4-10)

When a person is facing a major decision they can see how the choices they have can be

equally tempting, and will undoubtedly hear stories of other people facing similar

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situations and the choices they made. At the same time, however, the choice is unique to

that person and that moment. Frost shows this when he says, “And both that morning

equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black,” (lns 9-10). No two people have lived

the exact same life, so even though they may face similar situations, at the same time

each decision is completely different to each individual.

It is human nature to want a second chance at a choice gone wrong in life. In The

Road Not Taken, Robert Frost uses tone, diction, and imagery to show how it is

impossible to come back to major decisions people must make in their lives.