This hesitation represents how we can be afraid to act sometimes. The poet is forced to make his choice merely by how each path looks. The trees down each path are of "yellow wood" (1) and, unfortunately, they are "really about the same" (10). This situation symbolizes how some of the choices we make are based solely on how a certain situation may "look" because we have no other information.
Sound is a literary tool the poet uses in the poem. An example of alliteration occurs with the words long, lay, yellow, looked, travel, traveler, all, grassy, passing, really, telling, and equally. Repetition is another technique the poet employs. Consonance can be seen with wood, stood, could, fair, wear, there, lay, day, way, sigh, I, by, back, and black. The sound devices allow the poem to flow smoothly when being read and used as well. We can look at the ease of this poem as a signal from the poet that he is at peace with the choices he has made in his life. This notion is also reinforced with the last lines of the poem when the poet states "I took the one less traveled by, / and that has made all the difference" (19-20). The poet is suggesting that we should never regret...
Since we can never know what might have happened had we chosen another road, we should not bemoan choices that we have made.
The Road Not Taken" is a visual poem that allows us to see what it is like to make choices in this world. Many times, we do not have the necessary information to make an educated choice so we must go by what we can see, or perceive, about each situation and then go with our gut instincts. The significance is making the decision confidently and walking on with no regret. The poet in this situation makes the best decision he can based on what he can see. He knows he cannot take both paths and he knows that once her makes a choice, he must move on. The difficulty in making a choice must be forgotten as soon as the choice is made because there is no way that we can go back in time and do things differently. The imagery captures the essence of decision-making and the last two lines reinforce the confidence we need to carry on without regret.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." Literature:
Structure, Sound, and Sense, 10th ed. Boston: Wadsworth. 2009.
